By Goya Dmytryshchak
Hobsons Bay residents are being urged to hold onto their recycling to stop it going to landfill during the closure of two SKM Services recycling facilities.
Hobsons Bay is among 20 Victorian councils affected after the Environment Protection Authority banned SKM from accepting recyclable waste at its Coolaroo and Laverton North sites on February 15, due to fire risks.
It is unknown when the recycling centres will reopen.
Maribyrnong council has confirmed that its recycling service is unaffected by the closure and that its contractor Visy will not be sending recycling to landfill.
Hobsons Bay council expects to send about 175 tonnes of recycling collected last week to the Cleanaway Melbourne Regional Landfill at Ravenhall.
Mayor Jonathon Marsden said the situation was being monitored day by day.
“We understand that sending recyclables to landfill comes as a big disappointment to our community,” he said.
“We share this disappointment with them and we know it doesn’t sit right with many of our residents.
“Last week, we actively encouraged our community to give their recycling collection a miss if their bins weren’t full and store their recyclables for the next collection so we can reduce the volume going to landfill.”
The council’s recycling contract with SKM expires in February 2020.
“Like other affected councils, we are working with all stakeholders, including SKM Recycling, the state and federal governments and the Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group (a government agency that supports 31 metropolitan councils), in order to find an ongoing solution and assess our longer term options for our recycling service,” Cr Marsden said.
“The Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group has proposed to collectively tender recycling contracts for councils.
“The main goal of this work would be to attract more providers and we will watch this space closely to determine if it’s a viable option.”
SKM did not respond.
