Save Our Recycling

City of Canterbury Bankstown has joined forces with dozens of councils throughout NSW, as part of the Save Our Recycling campaign.

The NSW Government collects revenue from a Waste Levy, via licensed waste facilities, with the purpose of discouraging the amount of waste being sent to landfill, and promoting recycling and resource recovery.

According to the latest NSW Budget papers, the Waste Levy netted the Government $772 million in 2018/19.

Mayor Khal Asfour said that figure is expected to increase to more than $800 million a year by 2022/23.

"That’s $100 for every woman, man and child in NSW, yet less than one fifth of this revenue is invested back into waste and recycling programs," he said.

"The Government promised a major education campaign to help support kerbside recycling in 2015. However, that has not been delivered, while a Waste Infrastructure Plan and new Waste Strategy are also overdue.

"Recent decisions by China and other countries to stop the importation of plastic and paper recycling from Australia are also making it more challenging to find markets for recycled products. This combination of a lack of funding, planning and action, has left the state-wide waste and recycling systems in a poor state."

In the meantime, CBCity has partnered with another 10 Sydney councils to:

"And, at a local level, we are having great success with our award-winning Recycle Right education program, which is now being rolled out by other councils across Australia, and our popular Wheelie Good Compost program, where we provide free compost to local residents for use in their gardens, using the contents of green waste bins," Mayor Asfour said.

"But councils like us can’t do it all alone. I have and continue to call on the Government to invest the money it collects from the Waste Levy to help fix our state’s ailing waste and recycling, and help build a circular economy in NSW."