Wyndham City’s recyclable materials will start being processed by Visy Recycling, with no further landfilling of the City’s recyclables to take place.
Following the temporary closure of SKM Recycling by the EPA last week, Wyndham City, like other Melbourne metropolitan Councils was forced to landfill its recycling collections
SKM’s inability to receive materials means that they have been unable to fulfil their tripartite contract of which the State Government’s Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group is the principal—and Wyndham was therefore in a position to enter into a new arrangement with Visy.
Wyndham Mayor, Cr Mia Shaw said the sudden and unforeseen closure of one of only three recycling facilities in Melbourne is further evidence of the need for urgent investment in the waste management industry for the 21st century.
“Wyndham has been successful in negotiating an outcome that is in the best interests of our community and the environment—however it is important to note that there is limited opportunity for all other affected Councils to achieve the same outcome simply due to the capacity of the two recycling facilities currently accepting materials,” Cr Shaw said.
“It is therefore really important for residents to continue recycling by separating their recyclable materials into the blue recycling bin.”
Last year, Cr Shaw said, Wyndham conducted a waste education tour of leading organisations in Europe—who are significantly more advanced than Australia in the areas of waste management and resource recovery. What this tour highlighted (amongst other key learnings in terms of process and logistics) is that the only solution for Victoria is major investment in new recycling facilities which would cost in the order of $20 million each. “This isn’t something that the State Government could reasonably expect Councils to self-fund,” Cr Shaw said.
She explained that Wyndham City is in the unique position of being the only Council in Victoria still operating a landfill and our goal is to see this facility developed into a centre of excellence in waste management and resource recovery.
“We are committed to working with the State Government, private operators and other Councils to reach a sustainable solution,” Cr Shaw said.
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