Here are the countries leading the way in recycling and how Australia can catch up
Australia has set an ambitious target – to recycle or reuse 80 percent of the waste produced in the country by 2030.
But as of 2020-21, our resource recovery rate was just 63.1 percent.
At our current rate, Australians will need to reduce or recycle an additional 12.92 million tonnes of waste each year to meet the 2030 target.
These three countries lead the way.
The system that Sweden uses to recycle 94 percent of its glass
As of 2019, Australia recycled only 46 percent of its glass.
In 2020, Sweden recycled 94 percent of its glass.
Glass recycling is highly centralized in Sweden, where every glass container collected in the country is sent to a processing facility in Närke.
The private company Swedish Glass Recycling processes the collected glass, where larger companies such as the Swedish Brewery Association, grocers and trade associations own shares in the company.
Swedish Recycling CEO Magnus Andersson said the glass recycling industry “flourished” in Europe and was the result of decades of effort.
– It has been a system that we have worked with for at least 30, 35 to 40 years, says Andersson.
“It’s not good enough to just put a landfill in principle. For us in Sweden, it means that you have failed.”
European companies have flocked to Sweden’s centralized glass recycling system to cut costs.
It is much easier to remelt waste glass than to melt down sand, soda and ash to make new glass – meaning producers can save around 20 percent of their energy costs by recycling.
But Mr. Andersson said the success of Sweden’s system may depend on cultural mindset as well as economic conditions.
Recycling glass generates fewer carbon dioxide emissions than the creation of new glass.
He said that most of Swedish Glass Recycling’s customers see reducing their carbon dioxide emissions as a big issue, which leads to great demand for recycled glass in Sweden.
“I know Australia has a background of maybe not being the most well-known country for good behavior when it comes to the environment,” Andersson said.
“I think it can be thought-provoking as well… if I look at pre-schools and schools, pre-schools and things like this in Sweden, there is an element of training.
“You are aware of this Greta [Thunberg], the young kid from Sweden, right? That generation will not accept the behavior we have had in the past.”
Over three decades, South Korea turned its food waste problem around
Shifting the culture of an entire country towards recycling sounds like an impossible task, but in South Korea, a concerted effort by the government has shown that it is possible.
In 1995, South Korea was one of the worst countries in the world for food waste, recycling only 2 percent of its waste.
Today, around 95 percent of food waste is recycled, and private companies convert the collected waste into animal feed and fertilizer.
In contrast, about 56 percent of food waste is recycled or recycled for composting in Australia.
With the launch of a volume-based waste fee system in 1995, the ban on landfilling food waste in 2005, and a mandatory composting system introduced in 2013, the South Korean government gradually transformed food waste in the country.
The system is based on a “pay-as-you-throw” program, where the food waste must be sorted into special purchasable bags and taken to specific bins that can weigh the bags and load accordingly.
Local authorities use the fees to run food waste treatment facilities, along with a partial subsidy from central government.
“After laying a foundation for the system, the government did a lot of public relations work and citizen education with the local authorities and citizen groups,” said Juchang Yi, head of South Korea’s Waste-to-Energy Division in its Environment Ministry.
Mr Yi said that although the upfront cost of the food waste bags was relatively small, the cultural impact was huge.
“In Seoul, the average price of 3-liter garbage bags for food waste is 300 won (about 20 cents) each. Most people think it’s not that expensive and quite affordable,” Yi said.
“Koreans began to see the pay-as-your-throw program as a way to promote the common good.”
How the UK is supporting plastic recycling
Recycling plastics remains one of the biggest challenges in the recycling industry, and a sector in which Australia has fallen sharply behind the rest of the world.
A report by mining figure Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation found that Australia is generating the most single-use plastic waste in the world per capitawhich equates to 60kg of waste for every Australian per year.
Only 16 percent of Australia’s plastic packaging is recycled.
In contrast, the UK is the world’s fourth largest producer of single-use plastic waste per capita but recycles 49 percent of its waste.
In March, UK Resources and Waste Minister Jo Churchill opened a $550 billion facility built by recycling giant Viridor that will reduce UK plastic waste exports by 8 percent.
Edward Kosior was the founding director of the RMIT Polymer Technology Centre, which carried out industry-focused polymer research on recycling.
Professor Kosior said the difference between Australian and European recycling models stemmed from business strategy.
“The difference we see in Europe, the governments have said research has to be business-led. In Australia, we don’t actually have the same focus,” Professor Kosior said.
Professor Kosior’s company Nextek has secured funding from the UK government and partnered with Viridor on a new project using CO2 to decontaminate recycled plastics.
He said the gap between scientific innovation and the actual companies doing the recycling in Australia had worse outcomes for the industry as a whole.
“In the UK, the government has sponsored detailed research and innovation in areas where there are blockages. In Australia, we haven’t seen that kind of focus on specific research,” Professor Kosior said.
“[Australia’s] The university and innovation sector is largely disconnected from the plastic recycling area, and has been for many years.”
What’s holding Australia back?
Australia is the sixth largest country in the world by land mass, with communities spread to every corner of the continent, each with its own recycling policy.
Australia’s sheer size makes glass – a heavy, cheap material – particularly expensive to recycle in many areas.
While metropolitan glass is effectively recycled, waste glass is stored in many regional centers or sent to landfill, with Australian companies preferring to import millions of tonnes of new glass rather than use recycled glass.
Australia’s size also necessitates the division into 537 smaller local authorities, all of which vary in the recycling services they offer to their residents.
While a top-down approach was used to implement a food waste system in South Korean district governments, Australian municipalities and districts are still lagging behind, with only 25 percent of LGAs in the country even provide food and organic garden bins (FOGO).
While the size of Australia and its fragmentation across state lines is unavoidable, industry experts say the federal government has not done enough to help the recycling industry overcome these barriers.
Suzanne Toumbourou is the chief executive of the Australian Council of Recycling, and said many problems can be traced to the fact that Australia’s recycling policies are fragmented from state to state.
“There are cultural differences between states, but there are also harsh regulatory differences. Many national operators are really struggling to navigate all of this,” Toumbourou said.
“Our state-level regulations are all over the place. They’re fragmented, they’re disparate, and that makes it really difficult for the industry to invest with certainty.”
The division between states has also contributed to the slow pace of recycling innovation in Australia, a barrier to catching up with more sustainable nations.
The collapse of soft plastics recycler REDcycle was not down to a lack of Australians willing to recycle, but a lack of businesses innovating to create new products with the collected waste.
“Different states have different views of what innovation means in terms of recycling, because they consider it efficient to work with a waste product. They see it through the lens of, ultimately, just risk,” Toumbourou said.
The government promises measures by the end of the decade
Ms Toumbourou has called on the federal government to establish a national resource recovery framework to provide certainty to the industry, along with a dedicated government service.
The government has committed to achieve a circular economy by 2030 and set up a circular economy ministerial advisory group in November to guide the process.
The Department for Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water said the government was committed to developing an “aligned national regulatory arrangement” with states and territories.
“The Australian Government is also leading collaboration with states and territories to improve the harmonization of municipal waste collection and recycling across Australia,” a department spokesperson said.
A “roadmap for harmonisation” will be delivered this year, with recycling companies around the world looking at whether Australia will meet its ambitious targets.
“It will be interesting to see what you can do in Australia,” Andersson said.
“I know it’s an uphill battle. Hopefully with the new politicians in place we’ll see a change there.”