Recycling

Many household items are recyclable but can’t currently go in your kerbside bin. The recycling industry around Australia is working collaboratively with government, business and consumers to improve recycling levels and find implementable solutions. You may have been involved in some kerbside soft plastic trials or be in a council collecting food scraps. Either way, progress is being made.

Before significant infrastructure is in place to help support the recycling systems in Australia, there are ways you can maximise the recycling in your home or business.

Outsource: sign up to Recycle Smart - they’re a great organisation helping businesses and households recycle more items beyond what is collected at Kerbside. Items like soft plastics, batteries, IT equipment, old shoes or backpacks. The list goes on and keeps growing. For a small collection fee, they will come by your house or place of business and pick up your recycling. You can choose ad hoc collections or sign up to have 2 bags collected regularly (e.g. monthly). On the collection date, just put the bags out and they’ll keep you up to date with the impact of your recycling. To access the service for free, check your council website to see if they are supporting residents to use the program.

Do it yourself: many businesses around Australia act as recycling points for different items. You can sort and collect items at home and use the Recycle Mate app to find locations near you to drop off the items for recycling when it works for you. They’ve teamed up with the Australasian recycling label and you can search items to find out whether or not they are recyclable.