Ipswich council to stop recycling as costs soar

THE Ipswich City Council yesterday announced it would send all waste collected in yellow recycling bins to landfill.

It comes as global powerhouse China continues to roll out a new policy that will see it ban the importation of 24 categories of recyclables.

Mayor Andrew Antoniolli said the council had been “backed into a corner” with its contractor saying fees to dispose of rubbish would skyrocket by $2 million if recycling continued.

That would push up rates by about 1.25 to 2%.

Contamination levels in the city’s recycling waste is “unacceptably high”, the council says.

Deputy Mayor Wayne Wendt said contamination rates in recycling had doubled since the issue of waste was highlighted by ABC program Corners. Cr Wendt said lowering the rate of contamination was “unachievable” via an education program.

He said that increased rate of contamination meant the council had been left with no choice but to send recycling to landfill.

“Under the current and previous rates of contamination waste experts advise it would be almost unachievable even with the best and well-intentioned community education program to lower the rate of contamination to acceptable levels,” he said.

“In a nutshell, this means we were left with no other choice but to send yellow lid bin contents to landfill.”