Recycling rates in Australia have increased in recent years and can be further improved by State Government intervention to ban recyclable materials from landfill.
Visy General Manager Environment Nick Harford says recent media reports wrongly assert that Visy included New Zealand figures to try and increase the Australian recycling rate.
He was speaking in response to media reports that Australian recycling rates had been exaggerated.
“Visy states in its public reports that the recycling information covers Visy’s Australian and New Zealand operations,” Harford says.
“The inference that Visy exaggerated figures is disappointing."
"We should focus on how to increase recycling rather than a company that through recycling is directly stopping hundreds of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases every year.”
“Visy is concerned about real recycling, not how rates fluctuate from one year to the next."
"It is in Visy’s interest to gather and recycle as much material as possible," he says.
"Visy is constantly investing in new ways to gather and recycle more material and has increased its overall recovery by about 300,000 tonnes a year since 2003."
“Under the National Packaging Covenant, responsibility for gathering and managing data and recycling rates is a key performance indicator for the State Government signatories," Harford adds.
"It is a difficult task and one that requires constant review, but the evidence is clear that recycling in Australia is improving every year."
“Visy is eager to work with Government and the NPC to not only make sure information is correct, but to also actually increase recycling."
“Many State Governments have powers now to ban recyclables from landfill and encourage business and individuals to recycle more, but it is not being done."
"If they did, we could further improve recycling rates and improve the environment," he says.
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