Why aren’t we being responsible for recycling as a nation?

Historically, Australia hasn’t been very good at recycling with only around 11% of what we throw away being recycled into new products and large volumes of our “hard to recycle” materials being sent to our neighbouring countries, such as China, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

However, in 2018, China who received the vast majority of exported recyclable waste from countries such as, Australia, United States of America, and the United Kingdom, said “no more” and banned any country from exporting their waste to China. This ban was known as the National Sword Policy.

China’s new policy was a big wake up call for Australia and forced Australia to rethink and take responsibility for the ways we produce, use and discard products. In 2019, the Australia Federal Government announced a commitment and released a plan to manage and recycle all paper, plastic, rubber tires and glass materials within Australia. This means that every glass jar, plastic bottle, and paper cup you place in your recycling bin, as well as the old tires that get replaced on your parents’ car, will be recycled within Australia, and turned into new products. By 2030, Australia aims to recover and recycling 80% of all waste that we throw away. So although Australia hasn’t been the best at recycling in the past, we are now investing money and research into systems that do make us responsible for what products are available to purchase, how we use the products and importantly how we throw away our products. You might start noticing some new changes to the way we throw away our rubbish in years to come. For example, we might start having more bins for different waste streams, such as a bin just for glass or a bin just for cardboard.