Recycling record comes under fire

WA’s recycling record has come under attack, with industry and green groups criticising the State’s low landfill levies and lack of a container deposit scheme.

Adrian Lester, chairman of the Waste Management Association’s construction and demolition waste working group, said WA’s record for recycling construction and demolition waste, which accounts for more than 50 per cent of all waste to landfill, was abysmal.

He said landfill levies, which companies paid to dump their construction and demolition waste, were the lowest in Australia at $3 a cubic metre or $2 a tonne compared with up to $70 a tonne in NSW. He said they should be increased considerably to provide incentive for companies to recycle.

“WA has the lowest recycling of any Australian State with 80 per cent of packaging waste going to landfill,” Conservation Council director Piers Verstegen said.

WA Local Government Association president Bill Mitchell said it supported a container deposit scheme. Landfill levies were not the impediment to recycling, rather the lack of a market for the end product.

And that's why it never will get any better here!!! Because they don't have to search for solutions in WA!!!

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