Council driving recycling messages home with new look collection fleet

Published on 19 November 2018

National Recycling Week may be all wrapped up for another year, but a new collection fleet for the Region is set to roll out recycling messages all year round.

Chair of Council’s Waste Committee, Councillor Neil Fisher, said a number of brand new kerbside collection trucks will be hitting the streets and they come complete with large artwork promoting how to do the right thing and use the right bin.

“An audit conducted earlier this year revealed that in the past year, around 6,000 tonnes of recyclables were collected through kerbside collection - that’s a huge amount of waste diverted from our landfill,” Cr Fisher said.

“In saying that though, we also know that we have a 20 per cent contamination rate, so there are ways we can improve.

“We know that if we can educate people more, we will get better outcomes with our recycling and that’s why these trucks are so important – they’re a rolling billboard for how to do the right thing.

“The new look trucks display what can be put in the yellow lid bin and what everyone can do at home to see the biggest benefits for our community.”

Cr Fisher said it’s also important to get into the habit of sorting the recyclables right.

“At times, what also contributes to our contamination rates is the sorting and cleaning of the recyclables before they go into the yellow lid bin,” Cr Fisher said.

“Containers which still have liquid in them, plastic attached to glass bottles like coffee jars, and even putting recycling into plastic bags all means that they become unusable when they get to the processing point – so it’s really important to have the preparation down pat as well.”

Recycling facts sheets and guides can be found on Council’s website. Click here for further information.