Orange City Council is encouraging residents to be mindful of what materials they put in their yellow-lidded recycling bins as we mark National Recycling Week 2023, from 13 to 19 November.
National Recycling Week urges the community to consider the idea that ‘what goes around comes around’ and by using your yellow lid recycling bin correctly, you are keeping valuable resources in circulation, helping to conserve raw materials, reduce pollution and minimise environmental harm.
Orange City Council’s Environmental Sustainability Community Committee Chair, Cr David Mallard said keeping valuable resources out of landfill was as simple as recycling right.
Orange City Council is encouraging residents to be mindful of what materials they put in their yellow-lidded recycling bins as we mark National Recycling Week.
“There are only five material types that can be recycled in the yellow lid recycling bin – glass bottles and jars, paper and cardboard, aluminium cans, steel cans and rigid plastic bottles and containers from the kitchen, bathroom and laundry. Placing materials that cannot be recycled into the yellow lid bin is called contamination,” Cr Mallard said.
Recycling is known as a ‘closed loop cycle’. Recyclable materials from the yellow lid recycling bins are taken to Orange’s Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) where they are sorted and processed in preparation for being remanufactured into new products, thereby closing the
loop.
Recent bin audits in Orange found soft plastics were the most common contaminant in the yellow-lidded recycling bin. Soft plastics are not recyclable and include any kind of plastic item (usually packaging) that can be easily scrunched in your hand, such as plastic bags, bread bags, lolly and biscuit wrappers, cling wrap, frozen food bags, pasta and rice bags and bubble wrap.
Wish-cycling is the term used for materials placed in the recycling bin in the hope they will be recycled. Despite the good intentions, wish-cycling increases contamination, causes processing delays and increased cost, and affects the quality of the end product.
“Recycling is all about quality over quantity. It’s not about recycling more, but recycling better,” Cr Mallard said.
“To make sure your recycling efforts don’t go to waste, recyclable materials must be placed loose in the recycling bin and not in plastic bags. Also, make sure recyclable materials are clean and empty.”
To help take the confusion out of recycling, check for the Australasian Recycling Label, or ARL on packaging.
