Better recycling and more of it please, says Council

Please get more recyclable rubbish out of the general rubbish bin and into the recycle bin is the main message Council would like Noosa residents to act on now.

Council is launching its long-term Towards Zero Waste campaign during National Recycling Week 9-14 November. The first phase of that campaign is - New Life. Not Landfill. Recycle!

Towards Zero Waste is in keeping with Noosa’s community jury’s recommendations.

Council staff will be at National Recycling Week pop-ups at supermarkets across the Shire ready to answer questions about what can now be put into the recycle bin.

Magazines, aerosol cans, plastic food trays ( 1-6) and clean pizza boxes are just some of the items that can now go into the recycle bin in addition to tin and aluminium cans, plastic bottles, cardboard and newspapers.

Council’s Waste and Environmental Health manager Wayne Schafer said: “A recent bin audit revealed that 20% of rubbish in Noosa’s general (red or dark green lid) rubbish bins, could be recycled into something new and should be in the yellow lid recycle bin.

“Council estimates more than 2,000 tonnes of recyclable items are going to landfill each year completely unnecessarily.

“The audit also showed that on average, 5 plastic bags are in every recycle bin. Plastic bags contaminate the recycle bin because they cannot be recycled and create major problems at the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF).”

“Plastic bags definitely belong in the red-lid (or dark green lid) bin or back at the supermarket, and not in the recycling bin.”

Noosa residents currently divert 17% of rubbish from landfill by recycling. Council has established a target of 22% by end 2016 and is asking residents to please do their bit by recycling more, doing it better and keeping plastic bags out of the yellow-lid bin.

To find out more about National Recycling week, please visit: http://recyclingweek.planetark.org/  and to find out more about Council’s Towards Zero Waste campaign visit https://www.noosa.qld.gov.au/recycling-waste-services

2 November 2015