Toowoomba retains recycling scheme

THE Toowoomba Regional Council has no plans to follow Ipswich in dumping its recycling program, but said it would have to consider it if broader issues were not addressed.

Water and waste portfolio chair Cr Nancy Sommerfield said China’s refusal of Australia’s recycling waste exports had put huge pressure on the domestic system.

She said change needed to come from the Federal Government, otherwise the TRC would have to consider changing its current policy.

“At this stage, TRC will continue its recycling as per normal,” she said.

“I’m trying to get in front of (federal minister) Josh Frydenberg, because we need to re-introduce the recycling industries we once had before China agreed to take them.

“We need to do them again. We should not be sending our recycling overseas.

“JJ Richards (which runs waste services) have not come back to us expressing concern, (but) into the future, that is something we are going to have think about.”

Cr Sommerfield, who is part of the Local Government Association of Queensland’s waste and environmental health committee, said the State Government also had a role to play in revitalising domestic waste services.

“The State Government is introducing a waste levy and I said to the minister recently that this waste levy must be spent on waste,” she said.

“We’ve got to put pressure on the State and Federal Governments in different areas.”

Cr Sommerfield said the Ipswich City Council’s decision to scrap recycling was “disappointing”.

“It is disappointing, and I’m sure Ipswich council is disappointed that they have had to shut that down,” she said.

Ipswich Mayor Andrew Antoniolli said the cost of recycling in the face of the China ban left the council with no choice but to scrap the scheme.

“I have spoken personally to the minister on this issue, and made it clear we’ve been backed into a corner,” he said.

The LGAQ chief executive Greg Hallam warned that more councils could follow suit in the future.