Rubbish exports in demand amid waste crackdown (2024)

Overseas buyers are vying for Australia’s waste as the federal government seeks to clamp down on illegal exports of in-demand products including scrap tyres.

A joint operation between the Australian Border Force and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has resulted in the seizure of 730 tonnes of waste tyres in the past 12 months.

A department spokesperson said there was current demand for baled tyres, which can end up in unregulated pyrolysis plants, which convert plastic waste into fuel oil.

“The illegal export of waste is a lucrative business where exporters are motivated by higher profits in overseas markets that don’t apply the same environmental standards as Australia, or by potential financial savings through waste dumping overseas,” the spokesperson said.

“The profit drivers associated with the illegal export of waste threaten the uptake of onshore recycling and waste management by legitimate Australian processors who operate facilities in a safe and accountable way.”

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the illegal export of waste is an environmental crime that carries a huge risk to the environment and human health.

“We’ve seen some bad-faith actors who want to export waste, like tyres, for profit to countries with more lenient environment laws,” she said.

“It can mean tyres being processed in an unsafe way, resulting in the emission of carbon and toxic gases.”

In 2022-23 Australia generated an estimated 545,000 tonnes of used tyres, equating to about 68 million passenger car tyres, according to Tyre Stewardship Australia. Two-thirds of these tyres were recovered for reuse or reprocessing.

The organisation estimated 225,000 tonnes of used tyres ended up in landfill, were stockpiled or were illegally dumped.

Joe Pickin, director of consulting company Blue Environment, said tracking Australia’s tyre waste stream was difficult.

“Many of them are retained onsite or in stockpiles, but some are also disposed of in sneaky ways, including dumping,” he said.

2021 regulations require Australian companies to have a licence to export tyres, and can only do so for specific purposes. Tyres can be exported for reuse or retreading, while tyres processed into shreds or crumbs can be used for tyre-derived fuel.

“We’re still exporting shredded tyres to be used as fuel in cement kilns, such as in Korea and Japan,” Pickin said.

Environmental health activist Jane Bremmer, who works with Zero Waste Australia, the Alliance for a Clean Environment and Toxics Free Australia, said Australia had a history of exporting its waste to more impoverished countries.

“The whole concept of waste exports is highly problematic. Once that waste leaves your shores and goes to another country, you’ve lost control of it,” she said.

Glass, plastic and tyre exports have been regulated for export since 2021, with restrictions for cardboard and paper coming into place in July this year, but Bremmer said Australia still lacks the recycling capabilities to stop exporting completely.

“Australia’s waste management policies all lead to disposal outcomes, basically incineration and chemical recycling, but we don’t have those infrastructures set up yet, so we export a lot of it,” she said.

Bremmer said she was especially concerned about exports of contaminated plastic waste, and hiding plastic waste in paper and cardboard exports.

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Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia chief executive Gayle Sloan said exports were necessary as Australia imported most of its tyres.

“We do need to find global markets for products we don’t manufacture ourselves,” she said.

Sloan said most waste management companies were legitimate operators, and illegal exports were rare.

“There’s a lot of transparency in the waste export management stream because most countries now have inspectors at their borders, too. You can’t export material that’s low quality because it will get sent back, and that’s a massive cost,” she said.

“It’d be cheaper to dump it for an unscrupulous operator, rather than putting it on a ship – the financial risk is too large.”

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