Recycling back to being processed

Released: Thursday 20 August 2020

Council’s stricter stickering regime now means that our good, clean uncontaminated recycling can again be sent for recycling processing.

Since lockdown ended, contamination levels in the household crates have been so bad that we have been unable process the plastic, tin and cardboard recycling. These crates have been emptied into the same truck as the rubbish and taken direct to landfill.

“Because the team has started stickering contaminated crates, we are now able to again correctly process the plastic, tin and card recycling we do pick up, because truck contamination levels have reduced drastically,” said Phil Burt, Council’s Infrastructure and Maintenance Manager. “Glass has been collected and taken to the recycling facility for several months now.”

Council wants to thank those people in the community who are making the extra effort with their recycling. We know it has been upsetting for keen recyclers watching their efforts go into the same truck as the rubbish. Unfortunately the large number of heavily contaminated crates ruins the good recycling efforts of some people. Now that Council’s contractor is being very firm on contaminated crates, the efforts of conscientious recyclers is no longer wasted effort.

“Households that have produced good recycling crates are being rewarded with a free rubbish bag,” continued Mr Burt. “We know it’s a small gesture of appreciation. We would love to give some people a full pack of five because the crates are exceptional, but we need to be mindful of the promotion costs that we are funding through our waste education budget.”

There has been some concern from our community regarding Council asking people to separate cardboard out from plastics and tins and then it all goes in one truck. All three of those products do go in the same truck, however there are two compartments within the truck – one for cardboard and one for plastics and tins. Plastics and tins are further separated at the recycling centre.

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