Council commits to new recycling plan

THE City of Greater Geelong has agreed it will endorse the Municipal Association of Victoria’s (MAV) recycling action plan to tackle the waste crisis gripping the region.

The decision comes less than a month after Geelong’s primary recycling facility, SKM Recycling, resumed taking recyclable goods at its South Geelong site.

Councillor Sarah Mansfield, who chairs the environment and sustainability portfolio and moved the motion to adopt the plan, said the local government must implement a range of short, medium and long-term strategies to prevent further disrupt to the city’s faltering recycling system.

“While we’ve been delivered some relief in terms of the resumption of recycling collections in the City of Greater Geelong, we shouldn’t sit too comfortably in that relief,” she said in a council meeting last week.

“The system is still very vulnerable and there’s certainly a risk of the same thing happening again in the future without urgent and comprehensive reform.

“This is due to a range of market failures in the recycling industry and historical reliance on exporting our recyclable material.”

Ms Mansfield noted “chronic underinvestment” by all three tiers of government in the industry as a significant barrier in formulating cohesive waste solutions.

Councillor Jim Mason AM was quick to agree, stating the government has been “lagging” and “not leading” in the waste sector for a long time.

Under MAV’s “Reuse our Recycling” action plan, the city will use an educational focus and conduct “bin audits” to reduce contamination in kerbside recycling.

It will also work with the state government, support market development through the acquisition of recycled content and adopt measures to separate glass from other recyclable materials.

Ms Mansfield said council is looking into developing a game changing food organics processing facility to reduce the “huge” amount of food waste being diverted to landfill.