Printed paper waste has been excluded from the COAG Waste Export Ban until 2024 after a campaign led by printing industry group The Real Media Collective (TRMC). “Our lobbying was a success,” said TRMC CEO Kellie Northwood. Without the change, printers could have been forced to pay for printed waste to be sent to landfill rather than selling it off-shore.
Under new Council of Australian Governments (COAG) proposals, the export of waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres is being phased out – beginning with a ban on the export of glass waste from 1 January 2021 – “to increase the amount of waste material that stays in Australia to be recycled and reprocessed into value added products here.”
The TRMC argued that printers would have been forced to pay for printed waste to be sent to landfill rather than selling printed waste papers off-shore. “A cost that printers could ill-afford prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and most definitely unable to fund in the current climate,” Northwood said.
Australian printers currently receive about $18.8m per annum for recovered mixed paper waste. China is Australia’s largest export market for waste, receiving one-third of Australia’s recyclable plastics, paper and cardboard.
In its joint submission last year to the National Waste and Recycling Taskforce, Department of the Environment and Energy to the COAG Waste Export Ban enquiry, TRMC and partner the Australasian Paper Industry Association (APIA) said:
There is more waste paper from commercial output produced in Australia than there is local capacity to re-use or recycle. This means that should the Australian Government implement a waste export ban on paper and paperboards, this waste stream would be sent to Australian landfill, increasing the environmental footprint over export solutions.
In addition to the environmental impact of paper to landfill, the waste export ban on paper also creates a serious cost impediment to Australia’s largest manufacturing industry employer. Local manufacture is already under enormous pressure from cost competitiveness across international labour markets, these legislative impacts with negative environmental and economic benefits seem misguided and to the detriment of all parties desired outcomes, including Commonwealth, State and Local Governments.
The paper and print industry across Australia, and globally, has a well-established and commercially viable recycling sub-industry which sees paper and paperboard waste applicable for recycling or other re-use initiatives being sold locally, and if not, internationally for recycling solutions. Any ban on these export solutions would lead to reduced profitability to Australian manufacturers, a loss of Australian jobs and an increased environmental impact.
Northwood told TRMC members this week: “A big night last night with a late zoom meeting with the Minister of Waste Reduction, the Hon. Trevor Evans. Our lobbying was a success and I am thrilled to announce that printed paper waste will be excluded from the Export Ban until 2024.
“Between now and 2024, TRMC in partnership with APIA will work with industry for solutions on paper sorting and conversion solutions which will be presented to Government for consideration of inclusion beyond 2024," Northwood said. "If any of you hold strong packaging credentials in your companies, please do not hesitate in reaching out as we are pulling together a taskforce to develop a strong solution for industry to Government."
