Kerbside Recycling Assessments

Friday, 14 February 2020

Northern Tasmanian Waste Management Group (NTWMG) are committed to educating households about good recycling practice. Officers from NTWMG carry out an ongoing education program across Northern Tasmania which includes assessing kerbside recycling bins when they are presented for collection. The assessments are visual and involve looking in and through the bin to assess the contents.

Each household is visited and the bin assessed 3 times. Households are left an information brochure to explain kerbside recycling.  Their bins are given a tag or sticker, which will indicate if the bin had any contamination in it. Contamination in the recycling bin refers to any item which is not recyclable through this service. Examples of this include plastic bags, metal dish racks and clothing.

Most households receive a green tag on at least one of the visits which indicates "they are a good sort".

A bin with a small amount of contamination in it will receive an orange tag to highlight to the household which items should not be in the recycling bin. It doesn't mean the bin has "failed"; rather it is good, but not perfect. The incorrect items will be removed and put in the waste bin if it is present.

Some bins have too much contamination for them to be collected by the recycling truck and will receive a red tag/sticker. This indicates to the recycling driver that the bin should be left unemptied and it will then be collected by the waste truck. Residents should leave the red tags on the bin until it is empty to ensure the contents only go to landfill. Information for the household will be left in the mailbox to explain what was done incorrectly.

NTWMG officers are very approachable and very happy to speak to residents about recycling and waste concerns.  They can also be contacted via their local council for further explanation, feedback or assistance.