Western Australia’s ‘serious’ recycling failure

Australia – Western Australia (WA) has been labelled the country’s ‘worst mainland state for recycling’ in a report released by the Boomerang Alliance and the Conservation Council of West Australia. It recycles nearly 40% less than the national average while generating strikingly more waste per capita than any other mainland state, the groups conclude.

Their report states: ‘Perth is rapidly running out of landfill space. The state has an appalling and growing litter problem. Recyclers continue to go broke. The community continues to pay more for waste and recycling services for little or no result.’ It also underlines that, according to 2011 data, only 686 861 of the 960 717 homes in Western Australia are covered by municipal recycling services – ‘meaning that over a quarter (28.5%) of the WA population are denied access to recycling’. The two groups declare this to be ‘a serious failure’, particularly because other parts of Australia boast almost 100% recycling service access.

The Boomerang Alliance and the Conservation Council of West Australia are urging the government to adopt a container deposit scheme; citing poll results from January, they state that such a proposal met with ‘overwhelming’ public interest, with almost 90% of respondents voicing their support for such a scheme and 86.5% saying they would be willing to pay a 10 cents deposit refundable on the return of the container.

According to the report, one of the major reasons why Western Australia’s recycling performance ‘lags behind’ is the scarcity of ‘conveniently located’ collection facilities where consumers can drop off their problem wastes like paint tins, electronics, fridges, used tyres and batteries.

The groups claim a container deposit system will see private enterprise and major charities ‘establish some 180 collection points across the country, of which at least 50 will be geared up for recycling the full spectrum of household and small business waste’. Offering a ‘conservative’ estimate, they speculate additional recycling could amount to some 638 755 tonnes during the scheme’s first 10 years.

For more information, visit: www.boomerangalliance.org.au and www.ccwa.org.au