KERBSIDE bin charges are forecast to rise 72pc under the City of Mount Gambier’s 2018/19 draft annual plan and budget in response to China’s ban on imported paper and plastics.
The draft document, which is currently open for public consultation and will be discussed at the upcoming council meeting, outlines a $1m kerbside recycling cost for the next financial year.
If adopted, waste service charges for council’s kerbside collection will rise by around $455,000 from last year’s budgeted figure as the nation grapples with the consequences of the recycling ban.
Under council’s 2017/18 adopted budget, kerbside recycling costs were $630,000, rising to $669,000 in council’s second budget review.
Council chief executive Mark McShane said while the budget was yet to be formally adopted, the estimated increase in kerbside recycling was based on the plastics ban and calculated on a number of factors.
However, council did not state the increase for individual households in receipt of the kerbside service, saying it was “pre-emptive to put a figure out there” until a definitive decision was made.
“The figure in the draft budget is an estimated amount that may be required, due to the change in Chinese import criteria, for council to address the problem currently experienced,” Mr McShane said.
“The figure in the draft 2018/19 budget has been calculated in part from the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation and our own investigation and knowledge of the recycling industry in this region and in South Australia and the Local Government Association.
“This is all based on the potential increase in cost in dealing with our recycling.
“The big ticket items are cardboard, papers and plastics and their value has dropped hugely over the last six months.”
Council’s rubbish charge is additional to rates, as is the case with most other councils.
While Mr McShane backed the Local Government Association of South Australia’s calls for the State Government to release some of its Green Industry Fund to address the issue, he stressed distribution needed to be undertaken “appropriately”.
He added consumers shared responsibility to minimise waste by making careful purchasing decisions.
“We need to go back and reassess the long-term direction of recycled products in South Australia and Australia,” he said.
“That goes back to the very root cause of this, which is the nature of the packaging industry itself.
“If we reduce the number of packaged products we are forced to take when we made a purchase, we can try to avoid the material going into the recycling stream in the first place.
“What we want to do is ensure people continue to recycle, continue to have minimum contamination in their bins and to keep on putting it out every second week.”
Feedback on council’s 2018/19 draft annual business plan and budget will close on May 11.
