Most Australian businesses don’t recycle, don’t care: study

A new study has found that almost 80 per cent of Australian businesses don’t recycle – and furthermore, they don’t care.

The study, conducted by Business Waste, Australia’s leading waste and recycling experts, found that the majority of companies have no green policy in place and do not separate recyclable waste from non-recyclable.

Business Waste found that many businesses send most, if not all of their rubbish to landfill.

The study found that many businesses will not sort paper, food and glass waste, despite the practice being widespread in domestic waste collections.

“It reflects very badly upon us as a nation,” said Business Waste Recycling Manager, Jonathan Ratcliffe.

“Other countries have forged ahead with commercial recycling, but a high proportion of Australian companies … can’t be bothered and contribute to the millions of tons of waste we produce every year.”

“Landfill is both wasteful and expensive,” said Ratcliffee, “and businesses are hitting themselves in the bank balance because of their inability or unwillingness to recycle. It’s not a great step implementing a green policy, and it saves money almost from the start.”

According to Business Waste, the most common business products that are not recycling are: paper and cardboard, plastics, electrical waste and printer cartridges.

The Business Waste survey interviewed over 1,200 businesses and found that some companies are prepared to break the law in order to reduce or eliminate their waste-handling costs.

“We’re well aware that some companies will still fly-tip in this day-and-age, but we’ve found some smaller businesses prepared to admit that they dispose of their waste at the household tip while posing as a member of the public.”

“It’s a dangerous game – companies that breach their waste management duty of care face unlimited fines if they get caught.”

Fortunately, the government is introducing new incentive techniques for local SME’s such as green policies, recycling, tax breaks for energy efficiency, and the introduction of the landfill tax, which penalizes organizations that do not recycle waste.

“At up to $102 per ton going to landfill, it soon adds up for companies that don’t recycle,” said Ratcliffe.

“Our company is committed to the vision of a zero-waste, 100% recycled economy. We do our best to help our clients reduce their waste bills.”