Many people in the community have often asked me why we continue to use the black crate recycling system instead of moving to the co-mingled yellow lid recycling bins used by many other jurisdictions. At Council and with the support of our recycling contractor Armidale Recycling Services, we have continued to advocate the benefits of the source separation black crate system. By sticking to what many people consider as an outdated way of collecting and processing recycling, we have ensured that our recyclable material is of an exceptionally high standard and continues to have a market. Other councils who use the more ‘modern’ system of co-mingled bins have found that this leads to excessive levels of contamination, mainly due to broken glass mixing with the other products.
A recent announcement by China of their new National Sword Policy which means that they will no longer accept materials with a contamination level greater than 0.5% has meant that a lot of Australia’s recyclable product does not meet China’s standards anymore. Armidale Regional Council residents can be confident that the recyclable product from our black crates, which residents do a wonderful job of sorting and placing at the kerbside, will continue to achieve our waste diversion goals, despite major changes to the international recycling industry.
China’s new policy is having a large impact on recycling services in NSW and throughout Australia and in a lot of places has resulted in the stockpiling of recycling material until markets improve. However our recycling system, enabling residents to separate their cardboard and paper from containers at the household level, maintains very low contamination levels. This means the material collected at the kerbside can meet the demands of operators that process recyclables in Australia, rather than rely exclusively on export markets to find a use for our recyclables.
I recognise and appreciate the crate system does require a bit more effort from each household to sort items but is paying wonderful dividends for all of us and the environment. We all share some responsibility to reuse resources where we can, and protect our environment for future generations.
The recent changes in the international recycling industry will have some effects on the use of particular materials collected in the area. For example, export markets for some of our low-grade material streams, such as meat trays with no recycling number, have unfortunately dried up. I also expect that as more councils focus on generating quality recycling the price we will receive for our material will decrease, but at this stage we are still getting a good price.
So thank you to the community for your efforts. Keep up the good work and recycle as normal, while the recycling industry responds to China’s announcement and new markets are developed.
By: Dr James Turnell, Program Leader – Waste Management, Armidale Regional Council
