RECYCLING CHAOS: EXPERT SAYS THERE’S NO PLAN B

KERBSIDE recycling in Geelong could be sent to landfill for more than a year if a controversial waste giant collapses, an expert has warned.

And the potential closure could see about 20,000 tonnes of Geelong’s household recycling dumped in landfill at a council cost of more than $3 million.

Yesterday, News Corp revealed SKM Recycling was being pursued by six companies for debts of $4.3 million — with the companies wanting the business declared insolvent if it can’t pay up.

If the recycling giant was forced into receivership it would likely break recycling in Victoria, Deakin University lecturer in Hazardous Materials Management Dr Trevor Thornton said.

“I could see that this really could be the thing that nearly breaks recycling as it currently is,” Dr Thornton said. “Everybody seems to be operating to capacity or thereabouts, and so I can’t see that anybody else would be able to really take it (kerbside recycling) in the short-to-medium time frame, and even potentially the long term as well.”

“They don’t have the capacity to process it, even if they are operating 24/7, so the only real option is landfill.

“There hasn’t really been a plan B — or one would say if there is a plan B, why the hell has the Government not told us there is?” Dr Thornton said if SKM Recycling collapsed this week, kerbside recycling in Geelong would likely be diverted to landfill for “a lot of months, potentially more than a year”.

SKM South Geelong reached capacity in February, forcing the region’s councils to divert kerbside recycling to landfill for about a month.

By the time the site reopened about 1600 tonnes of Geelong’s recycling was redirected to landfill at a cost of about $261,000. If the same was to occur over 12 months, it would see the City of Greater Geelong send about 20,000 tonnes of household recycling to landfill at a cost of more than $3 million.

Dr Thornton said Victoria was in need of more recycling facilities to deal with the state’s waste crisis. EPA Victoria last Wednesday forced SKM’s Laverton North depot to close for the second time in five months last week, after finding the recycler had not followed conditions of a June 19 notice to bring its “large stockpiles of combustible recyclable waste materials” into compliance.

The notice caused the City of Greater Geelong to take “action” to deal with expected impacts, with the EPA on Saturday announcing the Laverton north site would reopen.

The City last week revealed it would chase SKM Recycling to recoup the $261,000 cost of sending waste to landfill, which council on Thursday said it expected to finalise “shortly”.