Blue Mountains City councillors have thrown their support behind a state-wide campaign to invest more money in waste management and recycling.
The Save Our Recycling Campaign, launched at the NSW Local Government Conference in October, seeks for the state government to reinvest the entire $727 million it collects from the waste levy each year in waste management and recycling.
Liberal Party deputy mayor Chris van Der Kley and Labor councillors Romola Hollywood and Don McGregor joined councillors from across the state at the annual conference in Albury to back the initiative.
They will seek the formal support of council at the next meeting.
Local Government NSW president Linda Scott said about $300 million of the $727 million the state government currently collects through the waste levy comes from local government.
“At present, only 18 per cent of that $300 million is reinvested in recycling and waste management with the rest disappearing into the government’s coffers,” she said.
Cr Hollywood said she hoped council and community will get behind the campaign.
“I congratulate Local Government NSW for taking the lead on this important issue. The approach is quite simple: redirect the $727 million that the NSW government collects from the waste levy into local, regional and state-wide recycling and waste reduction initiatives here in NSW,” she said.
Cr Van der Kley said “we need better approaches to recycling, especially when overseas markets are no longer accepting recyclable waste as they once did. Processing our recycling here in NSW rather than off-shore or interstate makes better sense”.
Cr McGregor said the motion they plan to bring to the next council meeting will also highlight “that we are keen to work with our partner councils through Western Sydney Regional Organisations of Councils (WSROC) to meet their targets of reducing waste by 70 per cent by 2025”.
