Maitland Council has joined the fight against the country’s waste glass crisis, following reports that thousands of tonnes of Hunter glass is going into storage instead of being recycled.
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Maitland will join three other councils – Lake Macquarie, Cessnock and Singleton – to take the issue to higher levels of government in a bid to solve the region’s chronic glass waste.
Hunter Resource Recovery, the organisation which manages the four councils’ recycling, is developing the submissions.
The company’s CEO, Roger Lewis, said that excess glass wastage around the country “should be recognised as a crisis”.
“The industry is under serious stress and unless the issue is addressed we could see a number of recyclers across the country fold,” Mr Lewis said.
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The Mercury reported in August that Polytrade Recycling, which is subcontracted by Hunter Resource Recovery to manage its waste, has had to resort to storing tonnes of glass in sheds in Victoria due to the collapse in demand for recycled glass in Australia.
Australian companies have instead turned to importing glass products from overseas, a cheaper option than recycling glass domestically, resulting in major stockpiling.
“Unless this is addressed by state and federal government, we’re going to keep stockpiling glass with no end market,” Mr Lewis said.
“This comes at a considerable expense to recyclers at a time when the industry is already under real stress.
“There’s already man-made mountains of waste glass around the country.”
Mr Lewis said the four member councils of Hunter Resource Recycling contribute about 18,000 tons of waste glass each year to the crisis, with the majority of that going into storage as companies wait for a respite in industry conditions.
If no relief is forthcoming, Mr Lewis said the consequences for glass recycling in the country could be dire.
“Every effort would be made not to, but we’d have to resort back to landfill.”
The twofold submission will call on the NSW Government to address current failures in the recycled products market.
They’ll also lobby the federal government to consider the implications of the continued importation of cheap glass products on local industry.
Council will also prepare a notice of motion for the NSW Local Government Conference which will advocate for the same actions.
Mr Lewis emphasised that the issue was a nation wide one. He hoped that the Hunter and Lake Macquarie councils’ action would spur others around the country.
“We’d like to see councils from across Australia get on board and join in pressuring the state and federal government to relieve the industry, because it’s vital,” Mr Lewis said.
“There’s a significant amount of recyclers around Australia at breaking point.”
The Environmental Protection Agency confirmed to The Mercury that they had commissioned an independent analysis, in conjunction with industry bodies, to help identify where the government might be able to assist in correcting any market failures.
