The (pandemic) sign’s on the wall

Is this a new urban phenomenon? For those of us cautiously venturing out of home, you cannot but be struck by the glut of signage prompting us of the COVID-19 precautions.

Local authorities across Sydney – nay, the world – have been rolling out tens of thousands of signs reminding us of the latest COVID-19 advice from health authorities – updated frequently.

What to do with the tonnes of signs that need updating or have served their useful life?

Northern Beaches Council is taking a leaf out of its own book by recycling all its 4,500 pandemic-related corflute signs it produced and distributed since March.

Council field staff have been kept busy recovering signs placed in the community so they can be “re-skinned” in-house with new information, saving money and tonnes of plastic going to landfill.

To cut costs and save resources, signs that return from the field in good condition are recycled about three times.

Signs are eventually sent to a Sydney-based recycling firm that processes the polypropylene corflute boards into reusable sign blanks.

DID YOU KNOW?: five tonnes of recycled corflute saves nine cubic metres of plastic going to landfill, prevents three tonnes of carbon dioxide being produced, which is equivalent to 211 gigajoules of energy saved – enough to power 10 houses for a year.