MOUNT Gambier City Council remains confident cardboard will not end up in landfill despite the city’s largest recycling operator announcing it will now charge to process the material.
It follows a collapse in the national market making it no longer financially viable for Green Triangle Recyclers to transport cardboard to the metropolitan area, with the site closing down its free cardboard collection service on Monday.
Cardboard is stockpiling at the Eucalypt Drive depot, forcing the company to now charge businesses and the general public who offload at the location.
Council city infrastructure general manager Nick Serle said the change came as a surprise to the local government body which notified of the situation this week.
“To be honest, it was a bit of a surprise, we did not see it coming,” Mr Serle said.
“However, we will be working closely with Green Triangle Recyclers in the future to make sure it does not go into landfill.”
Mr Serle said $60 a tonne to offload cardboard at the recycling depot was still more affordable for than processing it through landfill.
“We have got some room to work with,” he said.
“There may be a cost impact (to council) … but that is not for me to speculate and will be up to the elected members.”
He remained confident council would find a positive solution for all stakeholders that would not involve cardboard heading to landfill.
“This council has always had forward thinking and while we do not have all the answers at this early stage, I am confident we will find a way forward as we have in the past,” he said.
“That includes continuing to educate the community about waste as it all comes back to people knowing what to do with waste and where it should go.”
While he empathised with businesses who have large amounts of cardboard, Mr Serle said there would be no short-term impact in relation to kerbside recycling.
“Green Triangle Recyclers will continue to sort cardboard among kerbside recycling as we are locked into a contract with them,” he said.
“But they can only stockpile cardboard for so long, so we have to find a market or a use for it.”
Green Triangle Recyclers manager Wayne Ousey said a meeting had been scheduled with the council today to look at a long-term solution.
Since news broke on Wednesday of its decision to charge for offloading cardboard, he said the response from the community had been positive.
“It is early days, but we have had a lot of phone calls and people are really backing us,” he said.
“We hope the market turns around, but that could be in one month or 12 months, we just do not know and until that point we just cannot afford to send truck loads of cardboard elsewhere.”
Bi-Rite Home Appliances staff member Heather Billett said the community should be looking at ways they can utilise the cardboard.
“It will have a cost impact for our business like many others, but we should be looking at a way to turn it into a positive,” Ms Billett said.
“The question needs to be asked, how can we use this cardboard and what can we do with it.”
She said people need to look at the prosperity of having a facility to recycle the overflow of cardboard.
“Obviously costing would have to be taken into the equation, but perhaps there’s a way we can reverse what’s happening locally,” she said.
“Opening a factory that recycles and turns the cardboard into things like mulch, could have a positive impact and create more jobs in the city.”
Mr Ousey agreed the region would benefit from a mill to burn-off cardboard and plastic to be recycled.
However he said such a facility was extremely unlikely to happen in the region.
“An operation like that costs billions of dollars to run,” he said.
“Our best shot is the cardboard market turns around by 45pc, but if it does not, I’m not sure of another solution.”
