China no longer wants the world’s contaminated recyclables. So what does this mean for Australia’s 25-year-strong recycling programs?  

As the world’s largest manufacturer, China has been importing as much as 70 percent of the world’s recyclables. 

These materials were a valuable commodity to many Western countries who relied on the China market – including Australia. 

But China has cracked down on the quality of materials it purchases, leaving commodities like mixed paper and mixed plastics practically worthless. 

This ‘National Sword’ ban takes Australia’s biggest buyer out of the equation, leaving an estimated 600,000 tonnes, or 25 percent, of material each year with nowhere to go – yet. 

Waste Management Association of Australia (WMAA) CEO Gayle Sloan said the recycling challenge was compounded for Queensland. 

“Because Queensland doesn’t have a waste levy or established secondary processing market, recycling in Queensland is challenging,” Ms Sloan said. 

“The market for that 25 percent doesn’t exist now, which is putting pressure on recyclers to find alternative homes for those products. 

 “We’re having to rethink how we manage those products, particularly mixed plastics and mixed paper.” 
 

What’s the impact for local governments? 

Queensland is the second highest generator of waste in Australia.  

No-one – including Queensland councils – wants the recycling system to fail. 

Townsville City Council’s ‘face of waste’ – aka team manager of waste services – Matthew McCarthy said though Council was already seeing the impacts of the ban they remained optimistic. 

“National Sword has had an immediate impact on the operation of the material recovery facility (MRF) in Townsville,” Mr McCarthy said. 

“The operator has slowed down production and increased labour in an effort to produce higher value products – particularly for mixed paper and plastics. Stockpiling of materials has commenced as the domestic commodity markets have become flooded. 

“Although we are often hit harder in regional areas, we are optimistic that we can weather this storm. After all we survived the GFC. 

“Our message to the community has been clear: Keep putting your recyclable items in the yellow-lidded bins.” 

Cairns Regional Council is also feeling the effects, as they previously sent around 50 percent of their recyclable materials to China. 

Cairns Regional Council manager of waste Steve Cosatto said one-third of Council’s recyclable collection was now worthless. 

“The direct impacts on Council are that the actual commodity price is now zero for mixed paper and mixed plastics,” Mr Cosatto said. 

“When our mixed paper and mixed plastics volumes are combined that’s about one-third of council’s kerbside collection – that is a significant part of our recycling.” 

“We’re still proceeding with our collection and treating it as business as usual while we assess our options.” 

And according to Cairns Mayor Bob Manning, landfill is simply not one of those options. 

“We are not looking at landfill as an option. We are confident that we can find local solutions that will remove the need to consider landfill for recyclables,” Cr Manning said.

“That would be a regressive step. As a council and as a community, we’ve come too far to go backwards. 

“Community expectations have changed a lot even in the last 12 months, as a result of increased awareness of the issues around waste.” 

Cairns’ newly adopted Waste Reduction and Recycling Strategy focuses on avoiding and reducing excess materials as the top action of the waste hierarchy. 

This is key for WMAA CEO Gayle Sloan. 

“We need to focus the messaging on the fact single use is not good, and we want to avoid the generation of single-use in the first place,” Ms Sloan said. 

“We must avoid and reuse as much as possible.” 

Councils have a strong leadership role to play in changing the way Australia looks at recycling and the waste hierarchy. 

“Councils need to start purchasing products made using recycled content, like paper and drink containers,” Ms Sloan said. 

“Councils have a real opportunity to show leadership in this space. By mandating sustainable procurement and assessing the products they tender for, councils have the power to grow the recycling industry and create local jobs. 

“We know that there are 9.8 jobs created for every 10,000 tonnes of materials recycled. 

“The role of councils is to show leadership and get value for money, saying ‘we’re going to be sustainable and create demand for recycled goods’. 

“Waste strategies must be focused on creating a circular economy, so we are supporting products and resources that have the highest and best use for as long as possible.” 

“It’s not enough that a product is recyclable, it needs to be made using recycled material so we can create that demand for food grade back into food grade.” 

Townsville’s Matthew McCarthy said Council was already implementing sustainable procurement to increase demand locally. 

“The real need is in the development of additional domestic markets so we can close the loop at a local level,” Mr McCarthy said. 

“We are looking closely at our options to reuse imploded glass as a sand and aggregate replacement.  

“With Fulton Hogan, we’ve used glass in the roads in the recently constructed Stuart Transfer Station and are also looking at its application in all non-structural concrete projects.  

“We can see the use of sustainable procurement policies that mandate recycled content increase the demand for these products locally.” 

The future of recycling in Australia is a joint effort. 

Councils cannot afford to tell residents to stop recycling – after 25-plus years of education it would be counterproductive. 

"We are seeking a coordinated approach to this – it is a national issue and we need all states working together under the leadership of the Federal Government," Matthew McCarthy said.  

Though challenging in the short-term, the China ban presents real opportunities for Australia – and its councils – to innovate and grow the recycling industry while leading by example with the waste hierarchy. 

From onshore processing facilities to sustainable procurement practices, product stewardship, creative reuse and start-up innovation – the options are almost endless. 

Now let’s not waste it.