STOP WASTING TIME Still no action on city’s do-it-yourself recycling fix

GEELONG ratepayers are still waiting for the city to establish new “recycling hubs” to deal with the region’s waste crisis, despite the council signalling they were weeks away in July.

Almost 5000 tonnes of Geelong’s kerbside recycling has been dumped in landfill since SKM Recycling collapsed in late July, costing the city about $630,000 in additional expenses.

Council has now spent almost $1 million disposing of kerbside recycling into landfill, with the AFL Grand Final weekend expected to produce further mountains of recycling waste.

On July 30, just days after the city’s recycling processor SKM stopped accepting material, the council urged residents to sort their own waste and transport it to “recycling hubs” around town, including existing hubs at the Geelong and Drysdale resource recovery centres.

City of Greater Geelong environment manager Rod Thomas said more recycling hubs were planned for the city during the SKM closure to prevent recyclables going to landfill.

“We hope to put those in place in coming weeks,” he said.

“They’ll be strategically places across the city so residents don’t have to drive to far to get to one. We want to give the community an option to continue recycling, even when SKM facilities are not functioning.”

Almost two months later the council is yet to establish any new recycling hubs.

“Additional locations are currently being investigated, these options will be presented to council in the coming weeks,” city services director Guy Wilson-Browne said this week. “Since the closure of SKM Recycling, council staff have been undertaking extensive cost analysis of recycling options and co-ordinating end markets for sorted recyclables.”

Geelong chief executive Martin Cutter in July said the city was “investigating the costs and impacts of a number of realistic short and mediumterm solutions” to be implemented “as quickly as possible”.

Mr Wilson-Browne this week said council had sourced recycling destinations for cardboard, paper, metal and aluminium cans and glass bottles and jars since SKM’s closure, through recyclers including Cleanaway, SIMS Metal, the Alex Fraser Group, GDP Industries, GT Recycling and Advanced Circular Polymers.

As the city continues to explore solutions, SKM receiver Kordamentha has reopened the collapsed waste giant’s Laverton recycling facility, allowing kerbside recycling collection to resume in a handful of Melbourne municipalities.

Kordamentha spokesman Michael Smith said he was unable to say how the clean-up at the former South Geelong SKM site had progressed, or whether Geelong council was close to signing a contract with receivers.

“We’re talking to a lot of councils, but we can’t say which until contracts are signed,” Mr Smith said. “I can’t say when Geelong will come in, or even if they will come in.”

Ratepayers have now paid an estimated $890,000 to send about 6500 tonnes of kerbside recycling to landfill this year.