City Hall has put Geelong’s recycling crisis back onto households, asking consumers to “think about” generating less waste.
The appeal for improved “purchase choices” was included in a statement suggesting the City was unable to find alternatives following the closure of recycler SKM’s Geelong depot last week.
The City has since been dumping recycling waste in landfills.
SKM closed the depot amid a recycling crisis at dozens of Victorian councils after China stopped importing Australian waste for reprocessing last year.
“The City is holding discussions with the limited alternative processors in Victoria, although most are already at capacity and unable to accept more waste,” this week’s council statement said.
“The possibility of using interstate recycling plants has also been evaluated. However, the significant transport and environmental costs make these options unviable at this stage.
“While short-term solutions are being sought by individual councils, ultimately there needs to be increased recycling processing capacity for the whole of Victoria. This will require significant investment from all levels of government.
The City was working with other councils and higher levels of government on a “long-term sustainable solution” but said households could play a part in addressing the “rising levels of waste”.
“The City joins other councils and groups in calling for all community members to think about how their purchase choices can influence more sustainable manufacturing and reduce waste production,” the statement said.
The City offered household waste-reduction tips such as buying food in bulk and avoiding single-use products such as takeaway coffee cups.
Households could also deterring whether their rubbish could be “treasure for someone else”, the City said.
“For example, if your food scraps are going in the bin, there might be a gardener or someone with chickens who wants your organic waste.”
