NOTES:
- Australia’s waste crisis escalate
- India this month completely banning plastic waste import
- India was the fourth-largest destination for Australia’s waste in December 2018, taking 13 per cent total waste exports.
- The Australian Council of Recycling warned that Asian markets closing down
- Australia’s waste exports to China declined by 41 per cent last financial year.
- Countries including India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia offset the decline in waste exports to China by taking more of Australia’s recyclable rubbish.
- Australia’s waste exports actually increased by 5 per cent last financial year.
- An analysis of Australia’s waste exports commissioned by the Department of the Environment and Energy warn several other Asian countries review their policies.
- Malaysia and Thailand since announced a ban on plastic waste imports by 2021
- If Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand enacted waste import bans similar to China’s, Australia would need to find substitute domestic or export markets for approximately 1.29 million tonnes of waste a year, the analysis says.
- Waste and recycling groups called on state and federal governments to urgently invest in the recycling industry in Australia, rather than exporting waste overseas.
- The state and federal governments poised to release six national targets to reduce waste late last year as part of a new National Waste Policy.
