This article reports how, in Australia, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of glass are being stockpiled and landfilled instead of being recycled, threatening to seriously damage the community's faith in the billion-dollar recycling industry. Key industry insiders interviewed by local media have described an "unsustainable situation" with glass which has "nowhere to go" because there is no viable market. Australia consumes about 1.36m/tonnes glass packaging per year. Glass consumption is at its highest in NSW, which produces around 460,000/tpa. One recycling company, Polytrade, has decided to go public in an effort to raise awareness about the issues being faced by industry due to what it describes as a failure of regulation. "We are back in the dark age and we don't know wham to do. We are receiving more and more glass with nowhere to go," said manager Nathan Ung. "The predicament at the moment is there is no viable market anymore." It is currently cheaper to import glass bottles than recycle them. Polytrade says the regulator, NSW Environmental Protection Authority, is aware of the problem.
