The Victorian Greens are urging the Victorian Labor Government to take serious action on the state's waste crisis, following news that an SKM recycling plant was shut down overnight.
The closure will increase the volume of recycling that ends up in landfill and contribute to destroying Victoria's natural environment.
Leader of the Victorian Greens, Samantha Ratnam MLC, has condemned Dan Andrews and the Victorian Labor Government as being asleep at the wheel on waste for years.
She has called on them to develop a sustainable, local recycling industry and to establish a Container Deposit Scheme.
As stated by leader of the Victorian Greens, Samantha Ratnam MLC:
"We're in the middle of a waste crisis and this closure will only make it worse. More recycling will now be dumped in landfill and pollute our natural environment.
"Every day that the Victorian Labor Government fails to take serious action on our waste crisis, it continues to get worse. They have neglected this issue for years and we have dangerous stockpiles as a result.
"We know what we need to do, yet the Government refuses to provide the type of investment and policy leadership that is urgently needed.
"We need more investment in a local jobs-creating recycling industry to reduce our dangerous levels of stockpiling and to protect our communities from these toxic fires.
"We need a Container Deposit Scheme. They are a huge part of the puzzle in fixing our waste crisis, and yet Victoria is the only state or territory without one. The Victorian Government is now blocking a national scheme.
"How many more recycling plants will need to be shut down and how many more fires will need to erupt for the Victorian Labor Government to take our waste crisis seriously?"
