Australia’s waste crisis is set to escalate, with India this month completely banning plastic waste imports a year after China’s drastic restrictions sent shockwaves through the recycling industry.

India was the fourth-largest destination for Australia’s waste in December 2018, taking 13 per cent of its total waste exports.

An Indian worker sorts used plastic bottles before sending them to be recycled at an industrial area on the outskirts of Jammu, India. Credit:AP

The Australian Council of Recycling has warned that with Asian markets closing down and some councils already sending their kerbside recycling to landfill, recycling was "greatly under threat".

"We are back to where we started with the China crisis, but worse because we have fewer alternative markets," the council's chief executive Peter Shmigel said.