Oil recycling facilities are to be provided with $7.8 million in temporary Commonwealth funding to enable them to keep operating during the Covid-19 crisis.
The Federal Government has also said it will bring forward a scheduled review of the Product Stewardship for Oil Scheme to ensure it remains viable and sustainable into the future.
About half of Australia’s waste oil refineries have shut down during the pandemic, and industry estimates are that at least 25 per cent of waste oil is at risk of not being collected.
Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said constraints on the industry’s capacity to collect, process and store used oil could lead to waste oil being stockpiled or dumped.
“This temporary support will ensure that oil recyclers can continue to responsibly and safely collect and re-process waste oil to create a valuable recycled product,” Ms Ley said.