Australians could face a world-first ‘recycling tax’ in a further blow to households already facing a cost-of-living crisis.
The Albanian government has proposed making several changes to the export of paper and cardboard waste from Australia from July 1.
Under the proposed scheme, exporters would have to pay $30,000 for a license and a $4 fee for each tonne shipped abroad.
The National Waste and Recycling Industry Council (NWRIC) warned tens of millions of dollars would have to be passed on to Australians to cover the higher costs.
The recycling organization has called on Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to dump the proposed changes.
The Aussies’ yellow bins contain 48 percent paper and cardboard. When the ‘recycling tax’ comes into effect on July 1, new industry costs will be passed on to households
The National Waste and Recycling Industry Council (NWRIC) warned tens of millions of dollars would have to be passed on to Australians to cover the higher costs (stock image)
In 2022, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revealed that Australia had the fourth highest income tax in the world.
The average Aussies had to tax 23.2 percent of their wages – a figure well above the average of 14.9 percent across all 38 OECD countries.
Paper and cardboard make up 48 percent of the recyclable waste Australians put in their yellow bins.
NWRIC chief executive Rick Ralph sent a letter on January 22 to the government’s Expenditure Review Committee (ERC), including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Mr Ralph told Daily Mail Australia the new sector costs would be automatically passed on to households “through their council rates”.
“The more Australian households recycle, the more we have to export and the more we have to pay the government,” he said.
“The fees apply to all recycled tyres, plastics, glass, paper and cardboard that we export or landfill locally due to the limited Australian markets for the volumes we recover.”
Mr. Ralph told it The Australian the proposed changes would worsen the cost of living crisis.
“(It) will bring a world-first ‘recycling tax’ to all taxpayers if this goes ahead,” he said.
“A recycling tax is yet another increase in the cost of living and another breach of trust in the Australian community.”
Visy and Opal are the only Australian companies that buy recyclable paper and cardboard.
This means that a surplus of around 1.2 million tonnes – around half of the total – needs to be exported for recycling every year.
The industry has said the new fee was proposed without a statement on the impact of the regulations by the Ministry of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water.
Mr Ralph said there is no evidence that meeting the new proposed standard would benefit Australians, and he warned waste exporters would have to spend a lot of money.
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said she is just cleaning up the recycling industry after the coalition left it in a ‘mess’
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek was cleaning up the mess left by the previous government, saying the country’s recycling capacity was “insufficient.”
“That’s why we’re investing $1 billion in recycling infrastructure to recycle an additional million tons of waste every year. We will continue to work with industry on a sensible path to implementation,” she said.
Ms Plibersek said the new levy had been “a long time coming”.
“What the previous government said at the time is that Australia needs to deal with Australian waste, and we need to recycle more in Australia,” she said.
‘The problem was that they had not put any system in place to achieve their goal of recycling Australian paper and cardboard.
“So since we came into government, we’ve built a better recycling infrastructure.
‘We should not export our waste abroad for processing, wherever that is possible here. We have to do it here.’
She said the levy was “not yet in force” and that the government was working with the industry.”