The Queensland government has announced it will fast-track a waste levy to ward off other councils cancelling their recycling programs.
This has come after the Ipswich City Council announced plans to dump recyclable waste in landfill because it would cost $2 million a year to comply with China’s tighter regulations on imported recycling.
China is Australia’s biggest market for recycling waste, but since January it has restricted imports of Australian recyclables due to high contamination rates and the presence of non-recyclable waste.