Why has Australia had a recycling crisis?

For many years, much of Victoria's recycling material, including glass, has been collected, bailed up and shipped overseas for processing. This is no longer an option.

Australia is now competing with other countries to access smaller and shrinking markets – particularly for glass.  

The need to find a sustainable new approach to recycling became more urgent after the collapse of SKM which collected recyclables for more than 30 Victorian councils.

Council now has a new contract with Australian Paper Recovery (APR) which has local markets for the processing, reuse and value adding of paper, cardboard, good quality plastics and cans. However, APR does not have a market for glass, nor can its equipment process glass. 

We are continuing to work with industry to find local markets and solutions.