Victorian authorities failed to prevent the state sleepwalking into a recycled waste crisis, amid signs that China was curbing imports six years ago, a scathing watchdog report has concluded.
The auditor-general report released this week said the state’s environment department and Sustainability Victoria had ignored early warnings.
“The state’s heavy reliance on exporting recyclables, particularly plastic and paper, left it vulnerable,” the report said.
“Recent significant restrictions in the waste export market has brought this issue into sharp focus. This risk was not without early warning,” it said.
China sent shock waves through the global recycling market in 2013, when it announced that it would no longer accept poorly sorted or dirty shipments of recyclable waste from foreign exporters.
The Malaysian government has said it would follow suit and send back up to 100 tonnes of Australian plastic waste, because it was too contaminated to recycle.
The watchdog said Victoria had been without a statewide waste policy since the government of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews came to power in 2014.
As a result, government agencies’ responses to waste issues had been “ad hoc and reactive,” the report said.
The Victoria Environment Protection Authority (EPA) had not effectively regulated the waste industry.
“It has been slow to act — firstly with combustible recyclable and waste materials in recovery facilities — and more recently with hazardous waste stockpiles,” the report said.
“In both instances, EPA intervened only at the point of crisis,” it said.
The report pointed to a fire at the Coolaroo recycling factory in July 2017, which burned for 11 days and resulted in homes being evacuated.
“EPA has not effectively monitored and addressed the growth of inappropriately managed stockpiles across the state, which pose health and fire risks to the community and the environment,” the report said.
Despite a A$511 million (US$357.65 million) sustainability fund, there had been a “lack of action to minimize waste, to invest in infrastructure, and closely regulate the sector,” it said.
Victorians generated nearly 12 million tonnes of waste in 2016 and 2017 and 67 percent was recovered for recycling, but it was not clear how much ended up in landfill, because the data are unreliable, the report said.
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