Most Australians think they’re doing the right thing when they take their recycling bins to the curb every fortnight.

But our belief that we’re doing our part for the environment is somewhat misguided: Australia’s plastic recycling industry is largely a con.

Tonight on 60 Minutes, reporter Liam Bartlett exposes our national recycling lie: that the majority of our plastic waste is not being reused or recycled at all. Instead it is ending up dumped, buried or even burned in illegal processing locations in Southeast Asia.

Our belief that we’re doing our part for the environment is somewhat misguided: Australia’s plastic recycling industry is largely a con. (60 Minutes)

‘Plastic, Not so Fantastic’ airs at the special time of 7pm tonight on Channel 9. For more on 60 Minutes, visit the official website .

For over 20 years, Australia’s plastic recycling industry was reliant on China, which bought our mixed and often contaminated plastic waste, and melted it down into new plastic products to sell back to us and the rest of the world.

But in January 2018, China closed its doors to Australia’s plastic waste.

Since then, tonnes and tonnes of mixed plastic has been accumulating in the yards and warehouses of many Australian recycling companies without the infrastructure or resources to reprocess these products on home soil.

Instead, Australia has been selling plastic waste to Southeast Asian countries, Malaysia in particular, which took China’s place as the world’s largest importer of plastic rubbish.

Since then, tonnes and tonnes of mixed plastic has been accumulating in the yards and warehouses of many Australian recycling companies without the infrastructure or resources to reprocess these products on home soil. (60 Minutes)

“When you throw this stuff in your recycle bin at home you might like to think again,” Bartlett says.

Australia alone has dumped more than 71,000 tonnes of plastic in Malaysia in the past 12 months.

But there, the mountains of plastic waste can often end up in illegal processing facilities and junkyards.

It’s a big problem – and many players within the recycling industry are calling it for what it is: a load of rubbish.

“I think most people in Australia feel lied to, I think they feel disappointed,” Plastic Forests founder and owner David Hodge tells Liam Bartlett.

Tonight on 60 Minutes, reporter Liam Bartlett exposes our national recycling lie: that the majority of our plastic waste is not being reused or recycled at all. Instead it is ending up dumped, buried or even burned in illegal processing locations in Southeast Asia. (60 Minutes)

“Ninety percent of people do want to recycle, and they need to be enabled to be able to do that.”

Mr Hodge says governments and regulators need to step up and save Australia’s recycling industry before it’s too late.

“We haven't built the infrastructure. We haven't thought ahead,” he tells Bartlett.