Learn the golden rules of recycling
While 91% of us agree recycling is a good thing to do, Ryan Collins from Planet Ark explains that kerbside confusion is still holding us back from being expert recyclers. For National Recycling Week he shares the golden rules of recycling.
Have you ever thought about how much waste you produce in a year? The average Australian produces 647kg of municipal waste each year, making us some of the most prolific consumers among developed countries.
Most people are engaged in recycling at home and think they understand recycling well, but this creates the belief that it’s always someone else who isn’t a good recycler. Planet Ark’s National Recycling Week this week highlights the many opportunities for improvements in waste reduction and recycling.
Planet Ark’s new report, So You Think You Can Recycle?, features the Golden Rules of Recycling that tackle the most common recycling conventions to help clear up confusion.
One of the greatest challenges to kerbside recycling is the issue of contamination. Eight out of ten councils surveyed by Planet Ark across metropolitan, regional and remote Australia said that reducing contamination in kerbside recycling is a high priority.
In particular, there is still a significant amount of confusion when it comes to appropriately disposing of soft plastics like bread, cereal, pasta and lolly bags. Many Australians believe that they’re doing the right thing by throwing their soft plastic in the kerbside recycling bin, but once it reaches the recycling facility it can become tangled in the machinery, making the process less efficient.
Generally speaking, soft plastics are any plastics that can be easily scrunched by hand. They can be taken to many supermarkets to be recycled through the REDCycle program. Part of the reason people get confused is because of the variety of symbols on packs. Our new Australian Recycling Label starting to feature on products should help reduce confusion.
Interestingly, those who identify themselves as committed recyclers actually recycle more, but are most likely to contaminate by putting materials such as glassware or crockery in the recycling bin.
And while most people have recycling bins in the kitchen, Planet Ark research found that only 18% of Australian households have recycling bins in the bathroom. Just like kitchens, there are many products in the bathroom that can be recycled, including aerosol cans, shampoo and conditioner bottles, soap packets and cardboard toilet paper rolls.
The other important part of the “recycle cycle” is to make sure you’re not only recycling, but buying recycled products back to help divert resources from landfill. Good examples are choosing Australian-made recycled office paper and 100% recycled toilet tissue which help create an economic incentive for businesses to use materials with recycled content and are easy options for any household or workplace.
The Golden Rules are:
- Stay Loose: Recycling goes into the bin loose – never in a plastic bag, and keep other soft plastic out too.
- Easy does it: Simple materials like paper, cardboard, glass jars and bottles, metal cans and aerosols, cartons and rigid plastics are easy to recycle and accepted in almost all kerbside collections.
- Into the Garbage: Crockery, window and drink-ware glass, polystyrene, plastic bags, nappies and food are the big baddies in the recycling.
- Keep It Clean-ish: Recycling does not need to be spotless – just scrape of solid food and give it a quick rinse.
- Drop ‘Em Off: Kerbside systems cannot separate items like mobiles, computers, batteries and printer cartridges – find local drop off services.
- If in doubt: Leave it out! Putting the wrong thing in the wrong bin can ruin your good recycling efforts.
- Buy it Back: Look for recycled products, like Planet Ark Paper and Naturale Toilet Tissue to close the recycle cycle.
To encourage people to choose recycled we are giving away four prizes of a year’s supply of Naturale 100% recycled toilet tissue – visit recyclingweek.planetark.org for competition details.
Ryan Collins spent nearly a decade working in the banking and finance industry before being drawn to a career in environmental conservation that saw him work in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji. With a background in psychology and environmental management, Ryan’s role at Planet Ark since 2012 has been focused on developing engaging and positive environmental behaviour change programs to help everyone recycle and reduce waste.
Alan Stevenson
November 9, 2016 at 2:18 am
Recyclables
I read recently (either the ABC Radio National transcripts or The New Scientist) that the 18-35 year olds are very lax in their recycling efforts. I was surprised at this because it is just that age group which will benefit most. Maybe we should concentrate our efforts in this area? Have there been any large-scale surveys done here? What were their findings? I admit I was surprised at the idea of banning glassware and china because I thought they were easily recycled (glass back into glass and china into abrasive dust). Thank you for putting me straight. Cheers, Alan
Ryan Collins
November 9, 2016 at 4:26 am
Recyclables
Demographic differences is one of the sections of Planet Ark's National Recycling Week (NRW) research titled 'So You Think You Can Recycle?' http://recyclingweek.planetark.org/recycling-info/research.cfm. In that we find that generally, older generations are better recyclers than younger generations. For example, more 50-64 year olds (48%) than 14-24 year olds (30%) know that aerosol cans are recyclable in kerbside bins. And more 50-64 year olds (87%) than 14-24 year olds (74%) know that long life milk and juice cartons can be recycled at home. You find a similar trend with some Roy Morgan research just released too http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7042-recycling-way-of-life-for-aussies-but-were-not-a-nation-of-greenies-201611080854. It finds 'Among young Aussies aged 18-24, recycling is at 87.0% (up from 73.9%), and goes on to surpass 90% participation among all ages over 25 years – peaking at 93.8% of older Australians aged 65+.' Planet Ark's Schools Recycle Right Challenge initiative for NRW focuses on educating Aussie youth about the importance and benefits of recycling so we hope they bring the message home too. Regarding glassware and ceramics, they're 'heat-treated glass', a different type of glass to bottles and jars and melts at a much higher temperature. When it's mixed with bottles and jars it prevents the molten glass extruding properly and can make the new bottle too brittle to use. Contaminated batches are sent to landfill. Having said that there are a small number of councils (in WA) who do accept ceramics for recycling and it gets made into road. Cheers, Ryan Collins