In a Senate Environment Committee report handed down last June, one of Australia's largest recycling companies, Visy, lamented a household habit that it said "may doom tonnes of other recyclable items to waste".

They called it 'wish-cycling'.

"Wish-cycling is the phenomenon of tossing anything and everything that could possibly, maybe, sort of be recycled into the recycling bin," Visy's submission read.

This inconsistent separation of household recycling from rubbish contaminates otherwise reusable materials, increasing costs and the amount of recyclable waste being dumped.

According to the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), of the 4.4 million tonnes of packaging waste produced in 2017–18, 44 per cent ended up in landfill.

Re-education needed

The Senate report stated that "the ability to export recycled materials to China has resulted in a policy and education focus on the quantity rather than the quality of recycling".

In January 2018, China's National Sword policy diminished one of Australia's largest export markets, leaving an estimated 1.3 million tonnes of recyclables with nowhere to go and throwing Victoria's system into uncertainty.

In his submission to the Senate Committee, president of the Waste Contractors and Recyclers Association of New South Wales, Harry Wilson, said the public needed to be re-educated on proper recycling habits.

"As an industry we pulled off the advertising and the education of the ratepayers over the past five or 10 years because of the acceptability of this product into China," he said.

"I think that was a bad mistake by the whole industry."

In response to the growing crisis, all Australian packaging should be either reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, according to a target endorsed by Federal, State and Territory Governments last year.

Australians 'passionate' about recycling, but inconsistent

In its report handed down this week, APCO stated there were "critical inefficiencies" and "substantial losses" in plastic and glass recycling practices.

APCO chief executive Brooke Donnelly says business, governments and households share responsibility for Australia's recycling future. ( Supplied: APCO )

Around 58 per cent of plastic and 23 per cent of glass packaging was put in the wrong kerbside bin, meaning it usually ended up in landfill.

"We all, as individuals, need to think potentially more carefully about the impact of what we do and how we consume," APCO chief executive Brooke Donnelly said.

"It has been an issue for some time around the consistent messaging that consumers are getting in terms of which bin does my waste material go into."

While APCO launched a labelling program last year in the hope of improving the quality of recycling, Ms Donnelly said reaching the 2025 target would depend on more than just consumer education.

"It will require a transition period where things will be a little bit bumpy," she said.

"You have to have government, you have to have industry, you have to have consumers — everybody needs to be playing their own role in this."

Packaging is a complicated business

Bryce Hedditch was involved in the packaging sector for 20 years, working for industry giants such as Mars in Ballarat and conducting research projects with RMIT.

Awareness around recycling has been inconsistent from the packaging industry's point of view. ( Supplied )

"I think the end consumer has some major challenges at the moment, both with faith in the system and with the clarity of knowledge as to what they should and shouldn't recycle," he said.

Mr Hedditch said co-mingling different types of recyclable waste into one kerbside bin was too simplistic and that consumers had "absolutely zero vision" of the costly problems it caused for waste management companies.

"It's very difficult for a consumer to discern between a polycoated paper and just a paper," he said.

"There's a percentage of that you'll get away with before it has excessive contamination in the recycle downstream, when they're trying to recover the paper fibre."

Glass was one of the most widely used types of packaging but when different types mixed, it could easily contaminate otherwise reusable batches.

"You can't physically separate it anywhere in the process and the only time you'll know that's in there, is when they actually go to remelt that glass," he said.

"You've just reheated the furnace, melted this glass to find out it's cross-contaminated with lead-based glass and … now we've just lost 2 tonnes of recyclate."

Systemic issues beyond the control of households

With China off the table, Australia's domestic manufacturers have been unable to process the amount of recyclable materials produced, leading to much of it ending up in landfill or being stockpiled.

Brooke Donnelly said there was a "lack of transparency" around the information on where waste was produced and where it ended up, making it difficult to invest in recycling infrastructure.

State, Federal and Territory Governments have committed to the goal of producing only reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025. ( Flickr )

"Working across the entire value chain, both brands, waste and recycling, packaging, government — everybody needs to be involved and be part of this collaborative work to give light to where these data issues are," she said.

Bryce Hedditch said, with many major recycling facilities based in or around metropolitan areas, it cost more for regional towns to process their waste.

"If you're going to shift glass from Mildura to Melbourne, it doesn't take very many wasted trips to totally environmentally negate the benefit of recovering that material."

He said if households improved their purchasing practices and reduced the contamination of recyclables, it could help make waste management more economically viable.

"The cleaner we can keep those materials, the higher value they are at the other end."