Our rubbish stays home

February 2018 | David Claridge

THE RECENT ban on imported rubbish to China will have minimal impact to Meander Valley.

Back in July 2017 China announced that on 1st January 2018 they would stop importing 24 categories of solid waste from around the world, as the Environment Ministry claims that it is polluting China’s environment.

Justin Jones with local waste disposal company, Just Waste, is aware of the situation but allays fears that it won’t affect the Meander Valley region too much.

“For us who run the transfer station in Westbury, Deloraine and Mole Creek, it won’t have much of an impact,” he said.

“We collect, sort and process our product into high grade, low contamination material which is then sent to Victoria for further processing,

“Some of the bans they are talking about in regard to China is more the lower grade plastics. We do have a low-grade plastic line but that will actually end up being processed in Australia.

Now it will cost us money for recycling. In the past this particular product has been a source of revenue for some of the recyclers in Melbourne and Sydney, they were getting paid for it.”

This ban will have major impact on other nations such as those in Europe and the US.