The local government body has come under fire for dumping recyclable waste in landfill because it would have cost $2m a year to comply with China’s tighter imported recycling regulations. It is affecting all of Australia.”Enoch said New South Wales and Victoria were able to assist with millions of dollars because they had money tucked away from a waste levy, whereas Queensland’s levy was abolished by Campbell Newman’s government. “Those state governments have had a waste levy in place for some time and they have been able to draw on those funds,” she said. The Queensland opposition leader, Deb Frecklington, said the situation was “appalling” and needed to be rectified, but re-introducing the waste levy was not the answer. “Illegal dumping in Queensland went down when we scrapped the waste levy and why should every Queenslander pay because they [the state government] can’t enforce compliance?” she said.

Source: The Guardian April 19, 2018 03:33 UTC