Council urges residents to recycle right during National Recycling Week

Redlands Coast residents are encouraged to examine their recycling habits during National Recycling Week (9 to 15 November) and take advantage of a new station to dispose of unusual household items.

Redland City Mayor Karen Williams said she was excited to launch the revamped IndigiScapes Recycling Station at Capalaba.

“This station was developed to help people recycle items that are unable to be recycled through either kerbside recycling collections, at our recycling and waste centres or at other community drop-off points,” she said.

“Council currently recycles around 45 per cent of its waste however we still have a long way to go to get to a zero waste to landfill vision set for Queensland.

“This station supports both IndigiScape’s sustainability messages and Council’s Green Living theme within the Corporate Plan, and will help residents to reach the goal of 95 per cent of resources recovered by 2050.

“Council always encourages people to reduce, reuse and then recycle, so this station helps to support that message and to help keep Redlands Coast naturally wonderful.”

Items suitable for drop off at the IndigiScapes Recycling Station include mobile phones and chargers, art supplies, x-rays, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, empty beauty product packaging, toothbrushes and empty toothpaste tubes, thongs and L.O.L surprise toys.

Cr Williams also encouraged residents to use National Recycling Week as an opportunity to consider their daily recycling habits.

“Recycling contamination rates are on the rise, and are at 11 per cent for the 2019/2020 year,” she said.

“A 2019 audit of recycling bins on Redlands Coast revealed they are showing high rates of contamination for plastics, mostly soft plastics and bagged plastic, and food scraps.”

Items which should be placed in the red-lid bin, not the yellow-lid bin include soft plastics (bread bags, cereal box liners, pasta packets, chip packets, frozen veggie packets, biscuit packets) and bubble wrap, hard plastic toys and drink bottles, nappies, polystyrene and food scraps.

“Other ways you can reduce your waste and recycle right are to ensure you don’t put recycling in your red-lid bin, get a larger recycling bin if you need it, and get a green waste bin.”

Council will also launch a 12-month trial of the ASPIRE online trading platform, through which Redlands Coast businesses will be able to source and dispose of unwanted items that would normally go to landfill.

Cr Williams said Redland City Council – along with Gold Coast and Logan councils – would participate in the CCIQ ecoBiz ASPIRE Pilot so businesses could access the online marketplace to trade waste and defray waste disposal costs.

“The ASPIRE platform has the potential to deliver environmental and economic benefits for the region,” she said.

“What is no longer useful to one organisation can become a cost-effective manufacturing input – or salvaging opportunity – for another, so this is a great initiative.”

The CCIQ ecoBiz ASPIRE Pilot will be officially launched at the 2020 Redlands Coast Business and Jobs Expo at Alexandra Hills on Thursday 19 November.

For more information about recycling on Redlands Coast visit redland.qld.gov.au/recycling

For more information about the ASPIRE Pilot, visit aspiresme.com