Community
5 November, 2021
National Recycling Week: Recycle Right
RECYCLING can be a nightmare. But if you follow the Cairns City Councils Recycle Right campaign its as easy as 123.
HAVE YOU ever wondered, are strawberry punnets recyclable? Why don’t bottle caps or lids belong in recycling bins?
What happens after my wheelie bin is collected?
National Recycling Week, from 8-14 November, is the perfect chance to address these important questions, which can be a source of frustration and confusion for residents in the Cairns region.
Council’s Recycle Right campaign looks to help answer these questions by providing residents with simplified actions, easy to follow guides and resources to help keep it simple and put the right thing in the right bin.
Cairns Mayor Bob Manning said what can be recycled varies a great deal across Australia.
“Here in Cairns, we’re great recyclers, putting as much as 88% correct items in our recycling bins each year,’ Cr Manning said.
“But there still are common mistakes we’re all making with around 1,500 tonnes of incorrect items ending up in recycling bins each year, including clothing, soft plastics, toys, electrical items, green waste and food waste.”
Placing incorrect items in the recycling can greatly impact the quality of the city’s recycling.
“Some types of contamination can even harm our workers or damage our sorting machines,’ Cr Manning said.
“In the past month we’ve had some surprising items placed in our recycling bins, such as hoses, ropes, cables, building materials, toilet seats, gas bottles, motor bike helmets and even a fuel tank from a vehicle – complete with fuel.”
Council receives over 10,000 tonnes of recycling in yellow top bins each year, but surprisingly as much as 10,000 tonnes of perfectly good recycling is also being placed in the red and green lid waste bins.
“This means these items are not being recycled and resources literally wasted in landfill.” Following Council’s Recycle Right, keep it simple approach is a great place to start.
