ABC’s Four Corners recent report “Trashed: The dirty truth about your rubbish” highlighted a crisis in Australia’s recycling and waste disposal. The report implicated local councils, the Environmental Protection Agency and state and federal governments in the dodgy but highly profitable illegal dumping industry.
Companies built around the core business of illegal dumping are making millions of dollars in profits while local councils are losing thousands of dollars in waste levies.
Geelong council candidates Sue Bull and Sarah Hathway want an answer to these questions: where is our recycling and waste going and what is the incoming council going to do about it?
Bull, a health and safety teacher, said: “This is a failure of every level of government. From the federal government that doesn’t seem to care about the environment, to state governments running for cover and local councils who are either complicit in illegal dumping or ignoring it so it is conveniently no longer their problem.”
Deakin University student Hathway said: “This illegal dumping is completely unsustainable and makes a mockery of our recycling system. Local councils, in fact all levels of government, have a responsibility to the next generation and need to deal with this problem now.”
Both candidates, who are running in the central Brownbill Ward on behalf of Socialist Alliance, are committed to an investigation into Greater Geelong’s waste and recycling if elected, and are calling on other candidates to pledge the same.
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