The Keneally Government has been condemned for its failure to approve the sale of high quality compost recovered from Penrith's new environmentally friendly recycling services, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Catherine Cusack said today.

"Since last August Penrith Council's garbage has been processed by SITA at Australia's most advanced recycling centre at Kemps Creek.

“High quality compost extracted from recycled household garbage has massively reduced the amount of waste going to landfill. This compost should be being used in agriculture, turf farms, mine rehabilitation and roadside landscaping. But a bureaucratic bungle by the State Labor Government has forced SITA to stockpile tonnes of this valuable resource,” Ms Cusack said.

"These mountains of compost are growing every day, and are a monument to the stupidity of the state Labor government.

“While the Keneally Government dithers, recycling centres around the state are running out of space to store the compost which is accumulating at thousands of tonnes a week.

“In Coffs Harbour the operator has run out of space and been forced to bury thousands of tonnes of compost in landfill - a stunning waste of money and a valuable resource for agriculture.

“This ludicrous situation is the direct result of the inertia and incompetence by the State Labor Government which has spent 5 years and $500,000 studying the compost but is yet to produce workable regulations governing sales.

Across new south Wales over 20,000 tonnes of recycled material are awaiting action by Environment Minister Frank Sartor.

"It is ironic that the high rate of resource recovery at the SITA centre was praised by the former Environment minister Carmel Tebbutt when she opened the facility last March.

"On the one hand the Labor Government has said it wants this type of recycling - but on the other hand they are blocking it. The industry is furious because it is expensive state-of-the-art recycling centres trying to do the right thing that are most disadvantaged.

"Environment Minister Frank Sartor must act quickly to release the stockpiles and resolve the bureaucratic bickering that has led to this farce," Ms Cusack said.