180,000 tonnes of recycling heading to landfill as Victoria's SKM teeters on the brink

The company, which handles about half of the state's recycling, is in financial crisis and has told local councils it can no longer accept material

More than half of the Victorian rubbish usually handled by stricken recycling operator SKM will be sent to the tip after the company told 30 local councils it could no longer collect material from them.

Victorian minister for the environment, Lily D'Ambrosio, said other operators had the capacity to absorb about 40% of the approximately 300,000 tonnes of recycling handled by SKM every year, leaving about 180,000 tonnes destined for landfill.