– City of Ballarat Director of Infrastructure and Environment Terry Demeo
The City of Ballarat is reliant on press reports re the future of our recycling contractor SKM at this point and has no had direct contact from SKM over the weekend or today.
The City of Ballarat has arrangements with other parties in the event SKM is not able to keep accepting our recycling. However given the commerciality of these, and the limited sources for recycled material, we are not prepared to disclose these at this point.
The City of Ballarat is undertaking some trials of a local sorting facility, which is significantly more expensive than a long-term contract with SKM. However, the specifics of costs would be determined on a longer commitment to a local facility and/or different contractual arrangements.
Sending recycling to landfill would be a last resort from a City of Ballarat perspective and we would always commit to a diversion unless there were no other options available.
The City of Ballarat has committed to an All Waste Interchange and a local Materials Recovery Facility and funding from a state agency to support this capital program would be the most beneficial action from a state government perspective.
It is noteworthy that there is significant capital available via the Sustainability Fund where EPA levies for landfill are channelled. This levy on landfill operations was put in place with the direct intent of reducing materials finding their way to landfills and the City of Ballarat submits a commitment from this fund to allow regional facilities to be established to accommodate the recycling task would be appropriate.
