Orange mayor Reg Kidd said there were no plans to increase recycling costs for ratepayers, despite a move by China to restrict the importation of foreign waste.
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Lithgow has become the first town in the Central West to discuss increasing rates to cover increased recycling costs and there are growing concerns others will follow suit.
China is the largest importer of Australia’s recyclable products and Local Government NSW said the situation was a “recycling crisis”.
Councillor Kidd said discussions were taking place between the city’s waste management provider JR Richards and council staff, but there had been no increase in fees to date.
If the city did face higher costs as a result of China’s policy change, Mr Kidd was adamant that neither residents or the council should pay more.
“Orange residents shouldn’t be asked to pay more money for their recycling services,” Cr Kidd said.
“People are already paying rates and waste collection costs and they expect value for money.
“The government has announced a $47 million package which includes money for councils to offset any additional costs and we hope that would cover it.”
At its most recent meeting Lithgow City Council revealed the company Polytrade, who processes their waste, would increase their fees by $165 a tonne.
The additional fees, that started on April 1, would increase costs by $58,163 for the remainder of the financial year and $232,650 for 2018/19. The council is considering a $32 increase for Lithgow ratepayers to cover the costs from July.
The chairman of Centroc, Lachlan Shire Council mayor John Medcalf, called on the state government and the NSW Environmental Protection Authority to find a solution before it became a more serious problem.
“Everything is proceeding as normal and the pickups are still happening at the moment,” he said.
“It’s possible this could end up adding costs to pick-ups but we hope not.
“The other possibility is that recycling is stopped but we don’t want that to happen. We don’t want this going straight back into landfill. That would be a bad outcome for everyone.”
The government’s $47m recycling support package includes $9.5m to co-invest in projects to identify new uses for recyclable material, and improve the quality of recycled products.
