Queensland Residents Who Fail to Recycle Properly Face Losing Their Bins

Queensland Residents Who Fail to Recycle
Properly Face Losing Their Bins

Residents in Ipswich in Queensland face having their bins taken away if they don’t recycle correctly. The council announced recently that it feared they’d be forced to scrap their recycling services because the cost had risen by a huge $2 million due to China’s ban on recycling imports. It then hired a new waste firm, Visy, to take over the contract, but the contract is set to cost just as much, meaning that residents face tax increases to help pay for it.

The council has listened to the public though, and they’re absorbing the budget shortfall for the time being. But as it’s not feasible for it to continue to do this, it’s coming up with ways to save money on recycling.

The council is planning an education campaign to lessen recycling contamination, because 52% of waste that is sent for recycling is contaminated now, compared to only 15% a few years ago.

Another plan that has been put forward is bin tagging, where residents who frequently put out contaminated recycling waste would have their bins removed. Critics have said that this amounts to public shaming.

Contamination levels have risen so high that waste firms are cancelling recycling contracts and the council has stepped up their efforts to reduce it by coming down on hard on people who don’t comply. A council spokesperson said that it needs to take action with repeat offenders, and if it means taking away their recycling service, that is what will happen.

The council is also looking at excluding glass from recycling collections as it is quite costly to recycle. They are planning to look at different ways to collect and process it.

Recycling services in Ipswich are currently suspended pending a final decision about how the council is going to proceed.

Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5680955/Locals-Queensland-city-rubbish-bins-taken-away.html#ixzz5EMsYD4uL