Recycling refresh
Published on 18 June 2021
Maribyrnong City Council will soon undertake a recycling campaign to help increase recycling awareness and reduce waste across the municipality.
Running from June to September, the campaign will involve visual checks of random recycling and food and garden waste bins across the city to identify common recycling issues, and help residents avoid making mistakes with their recycling and waste management.
Bins placed out for collection will receive a quick visual assessment, and a small tag will be placed on the bin to provide advice on any items that shouldn’t be in the recycling bin because they contaminate it. The tags also include tips on simple ways to reduce waste in the home, and advice on how to find out if an item can be recycled.
Recent research undertaken by Sustainability Victoria has shown that though there is a lot of community support for recycling and reducing waste, many residents are still unsure of what items can and cannot be recycled in their kerbside bins. The study found that while 94% of Victorians agree it is the responsibility of every individual to put the right items in their recycling bin, one in two Victorian residents have incorrectly recycled an item in the past year.
When the wrong items are placed in kerbside recycling and food and garden waste bins, it can cause the whole load to become contaminated, putting recycling efforts to waste and sending useful resources to landfill.
Some of the most common items incorrectly recycled are:
- Plastic bags and soft plastic packaging
- Broken glass from cups, glasses and mirrors
- Electrical waste and batteries
- Clothing and textile items
Reducing the amount of waste that our municipality sends to landfill is a key priority and goal of Council’s Towards Zero Waste Strategy, and this includes reducing the amount of contamination in our recycling and food and garden waste bins.
To make it easy to understand recycling, an A-Z search guide is available on Council’s website and on the free Maribyrnong Bins and Recycling app. They are great tools which help residents to look up items and find out where they can dispose of them safely.
Food and garden waste bins are currently an opt-in service, but will be rolled out to all single detached dwellings (houses) in the municipality later this year.
A reminder as to what can and can’t go in your recycling bin
Yes
|
No
|
- Aluminium cans
- Empty hard plastic bottles (lids on) and containers
- Old newspapers and magazines
- Paper and cardboard
- Empty glass jars and bottles (lids off)
- Printed paper material (junk mail) and envelopes
- Clean plastic plant pots
|
- Plastic bags and soft plastic film like cling wrap
- Bagged recycling (always empty into the bin loose)
- Batteries and electronics
- Smashed or broken glasses, plates or mirrors
- Unwanted clothing items like shoes and jumpers
- Garden waste
- Food scraps
|
A reminder as to what can and can’t go in your food and garden waste bin
Yes
|
No
|
- Leftover food
- Fruit and vegetable scraps
- Dairy products
- Egg shells
- Seafood, meat and bones
- Rice, bread and pasta
- Garden waste
|
- Plastic bags and kitchen caddy liners
- Coffee pods and tea bags
- Compostable packaging products such as recyclable take away containers and cutlery
- Liquids and oils
- Pet waste
|
For more information about recycling, including what can and can’t go in your recycling and food and garden waste bins, and to download the free Maribyrnong Bins and Recycling app, visit the website:www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au/waste
For more information about the food and garden waste service, visit the website: www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au/foodwaste
Message from the Mayor, Cr Michael Clarke
Programs like these provide valuable insight into how our community is using kerbside recycling and food and garden waste bins, allowing us to support residents as work to reduce waste across the municipality.
Our community is already doing a great job in reducing waste where possible and recycling correctly, however there is always room for improvement, and I encourage residents to keep an eye out and take part in this campaign.
Maribyrnong News
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