Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The poll of 1000 voters, conducted for the Australian Council of Recycling by Crosby Textor, shows the unusually emphatic support is spread across political affiliations, states and age groups. Strong backing was also expressed for specific proposals to make Australia a "circular economy" that has a greater capacity to deal with its own waste rather than exporting it. "It’s time to transform recycling," said Pete Shmigel, chief executive of ACOR.

"We need a real plan that basically invests in infrastructure, improvements and innovation. "They have a challenge for them on Friday: to come away with a plan." There was less enthusiasm for initiatives that would directly hit household budgets, with 51 per cent of respondents opposed to increased council rates to fund a sustainable recycling industry, compared to 42 per cent support. Mr Shmigel said people wanted responsibility to be shared with the sector.

"They are willing to contribute to recycling to some degree through council rates but they also want to see others, like producers, make a contribution as well," he said. Glen Iris resident Tiril Stenhammer has just about given up on recycling due to Australia's confusing system, which she finds far more complicated than in her native Norway. Ms Stenhammer, 25, who has lived in Melbourne for the past six years, said she was shocked at how complicated recycling was here, and how little people knew about what items they could and could not recycle. Loading

"I find a lot of the time, I go to throw something into the recycling, and then people say 'it can’t be recycled'." Ms Stenhammer said her generation of Norwegians had grown up with a strong recycling system and had known nothing else. In Norway, people put their domestic waste all in one bin, and sort recyclable material into different coloured-coded bags for each type of material: a process that is simpler for householders, and for those who sort the items further down the chain. Historically, a significant proportion of Australia's recyclable material has been exported to China for processing. China's decision to ban imports of low quality and highly contaminated waste has thrown Australia's processes into chaos and caused a glut of material that is being stockpiled and in some cases sent to landfill.

The NSW and Victorian governments have responded with emergency funding to help councils, but industry and environmental groups are calling for governments to urgently agree on a long-term plan. The Greens have outlined their strategy, which would also invest in the industry and prioritise recycled material in government procurement as well as compelling manufacturers to produce recyclable products through a product stewardship scheme. Meanwhile, local councils are currently wrestling with whether to pay more for domestic recycling collections, stockpile the waste, or send it to landfill. Last week, Maroondah Council in Melbourne's east announced it would raise its bin collection fees by $68 a year, to $324 per household.