Despite the crisis, don't lose faith in recycling

Feb. 23, 2019, Sydney Morning Herald: "China’s National Sword policy, last February, to restrict imports of some recyclables set off a chain reaction that exposed how vulnerable our system is, and should have delivered an important wake-up call to governments. Unfortunately, 12 months on, we are in the midst of another recycling crisis.

To reduce the amount of waste generated we need to look upstream to designers and producers of goods and require them to minimise their waste and maximise use of recycled content. The federal government has a key role to play. Mandatory product stewardship schemes should be introduced that require producers to take responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products. This approach would align with the polluter-pays principle and provides an important incentive for producers to change their ways...

Equally, or possibly even more critical, is investment in market development for new recycling industries and technologies that reduce our dependence on offshore reprocessing and create local demand for recycled content."