The Australian Greens are decrying the federal government’s decision to allow a temporary reprieval on shipping plastic overseas to be recycled.
This comes after it was revealed on May 18 that the Minister for the Environment, Tanya Plibersek, had given temporary approval for recycling company Oately Resources Australia to export some of Australia’s most easily recyclable household plastic waste, which includes milk cartons, vegetable oil containers, and soft drink bottles, for one year.
Previously, Australia sent much of its plastic waste overseas to China for recycling, but this stopped in 2018 when China stopped accepting solid waste.
The former Morrison-led Coalition government then instituted a staged export ban on plastic in 2020, which banned mixed plastic waste from mid-2021 and placed stronger restrictions on sorted plastic waste from the middle of 2022….