MOUNTAINS of plastic waste have piled up at Green Triangle Recyclers as the shock waves following China’s ban on foreign waste imports continue to reverberate through the international waste processing industry.
Formerly the world’s largest importer of recyclable materials, China announced in July it would no longer take on “foreign garbage” and implemented a ban on waste imports including paper, textiles and plastics in January.
Faced with growing piles of recyclables with no market value, Green Triangle Recyclers owner Ian Weber conceded there was no short-term solution.
“We are no longer accepting soft plastics from businesses because our yards are full and we can’t take any more on,” Mr Weber said.
“Effectively there is no longer a market for mixed plastic and we cannot get rid of it at the moment – we are exploring opportunities for somewhere down the track but right now and for the foreseeable future we can’t move it.
“We can get rid of mixed paper and we will still accept paper waste, but there is no commercial value for it at the moment so we are losing money there too.”
He said the inundated processing facility was forced to deal with frustrated customers “on a daily basis”.
“People still attempt to dump the soft plastics here and use the place as a rubbish tip,” he said.
“At this stage the only thing we can do is stockpile what we have here, but we are running out of space.”
As for the city’s kerbside recycling service, Mount Gambier City Council environmental sustainability officer Aaron Izzard said “nothing had changed”.
“Residents can still put everything they were recycling before, including plastics, into their blue bin,” Mr Izzard said.
“It’s important the community does the right thing with the blue bin and don’t put in items that contaminate the stream.
“Please ensure you take the lids off bottles and don’t put metal wire and strapping in the bin.”
Mr Weber said the city’s recyclables were processed by hand – often an arduous and unpleasant task.
“Mount Gambier residents do a really good job of recycling but with the best of intentions people put the wrong things in the bins,” Mr Weber added.
“Information about what can and can’t be recycled is available on council’s website.”
Meanwhile, Hayden Feltus of MM Electrical said local businesses were searching for temporary solutions.
“As an electrical wholesaler we accumulate a large volume of soft plastic waste every week,” Mr Feltus said.
“The vast majority of items we have delivered to our warehouse every day are wrapped in plastic and we also end up with hundreds of air filled plastic bags used for packing items.
“Ultimately it impacts our bottom line – we have been paying to have soft plastics collected by a different company each week.”
Mr Izzard said council was working with Green Triangle Recyclers and other recycling businesses to investigate long term options.
