Recycle Right for National Recycling Week

Published on 12 November 2019

It’s National Recycling Week – the perfect time to thank our community for their recycling efforts which save some 5,600 tonnes of material a year from going to landfill.  

Byron Shire Council is throwing out the challenge to residents to learn the six Recycle Right messages so we can ramp up our recycling efforts even further. 

“We know the community is looking for more information about recycling, so we’re running a campaign this month to answer our community’s most frequently asked questions about what can and can’t go in the yellow bin,” Council’s Team Leader of Resource Recovery, Danielle Hanigan said.

“We have also distributed Recycle Right fridge magnets and brochures with the FAQ’s and an A-Z recycling guide to local supermarkets, community centres and halls and post offices for residents to collect.

“These highlight the six Recycle Right messages to help people keep it simple when they’re putting items in their yellow lid recycling bin,” she said.

The six Recycle Right rules include:

• Keep it simple - Only recycle paper and cardboard, steel and aluminium cans, glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles and containers and Resource Recovery Collection Satchels.

• Keep out soft plastics - This includes all plastic bags, even if they have a recycling symbol, are degradable or compostable, and other soft plastics including cling wrap chip packets and bread bags.

• Keep out small items – any items smaller than a credit card. All lids now need to be removed from bottles and those smaller than a credit card put in your landfill bin.

• Keep it Safe - keep out strapping, hose, netting, wires, building materials and other hazardous materials.

• Keep it Clean - rinse or wipe any excess food and drink from all bottles, containers and tins before placing them in your recycling bin. Keep out food scraps, nappies and soiled paper

• Keep it Loose - put each item into your yellow recycling bin separately, don’t bag, box or contain your recyclable items.

“It’s also important for residents to know that recycled material collected in yellow bins in the Byron Shire is sent for recycling – it is not sent to landfill,” Ms Hanigan said.

“A decision by China several years ago to stop taking recycled material from Australia has led to many changes in the industry and unfortunately some confusion about where our recycling goes, as well as what we can put in our yellow bins.

“National Recycling Week is a great opportunity to drive home the message about how important it is for people to continue to recycle their waste – it’s easy and it’s a way we can all do something for the planet,” she said.

Byron Shire’s kerbside recycling is sent to a Materials Recovery Facility at Chinderah where it is separated and sorted and sent to local and international markets.

“There have been changes to what is accepted in our yellow bins and we are using National Recycling Week to get some clarity about what goes in and what stays out,” Ms Hanigan said.

The most common recycling mistakes people in the Byron Shire make are placing the following in the yellow bin:

• Pizza boxes • Meat trays • Takeaway coffee cups • Mixed plastics • Biscuit trays (packaging) • Clothing

For more information download the Recycle Coach app or visit the Recycle Right page: www.byron.nsw.gov.au/Services/Waste-recycling/RecycleRight

Or you can contact Council’s Resource Recovery Hotline on 1300 652 625.