Recycle right, mate!

When comes to recycling, we need to not only stay up to date, but look beyond our kerbside bins!

Recycling can seem really confusing and staying up to date is a big challenge! Technology and our infrastructure is constantly changing. And just to make matters worse, just because an item is recyclable somewhere does not mean it necessarily belongs in your kerbside bin. That’s because different councils have access to different recycling facilities, and each facility has unique equipment and capabilities and is able to process a different set of items.

And the good news is that we can now recycle tennis balls, thongs, blisterpacks, coffee cups, plant pots, computer keyboards and seedling trays - but none of these things can go in your kerbside bin.

When it comes to recycling, we need to expand and improve our habits which go beyond our kerbside bin.

Luckily, we’re here to help you!

Did you know that there are innumerable ways to recycle specific items which you probably use on a regular basis? There are drop-off points and collection opportunities for things as diverse as running shoes, mobile phones and bread-tags.

All these items are composed of valuable materials like metals, leather, and yes plastic - which shouldn’t be wasted in landfill. Recycling is the circular economy in action, where everything is a resource and there is no such thing as waste.

Let’s work together to keep resources out of rubbish dumps, and channelled back into the economy! Starting with…

BASKETBALLS

 Game on Recycling is a pilot program which aims to create a national recycling scheme for sports equipment. That means rather than being thrown into landfills, tennis balls, inflates (basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, etc) and snowsports equipment will be recycled.

Let’s face it - Australia prides itself on being a sporting nation. Large volumes of sporting equipment are required each year to support our sporting passions, including an estimated ten million tennis balls, two million basketballs, over a 1000 tons of ski equipment, and more.

Let’s pride ourselves on being a recycling nation, too. Drop off your unwanted basketballs, tennis balls and soccer balls at participating collection points – most probably your local tennis club.

BATTERIES

B-cycle is Australia's nationwide, government-backed battery stewardship scheme. It's the safe and simple way to help build a world where no battery goes to landfill. Precious metals and toxic wastes are kept out of our ecosystems while new life is given to finite natural materials like lithium, cobalt and manganese. These precious minerals and metals will be needed in Australia’s future conversion to battery-powered renewable energy sources.

Find a drop-off near you.

BLISTER PACKS

Did you know there is a recycling solution for used and empty blister packs? For blister packs to be recycled, they first need to be collected in sufficient volumes to warrant the use of specialised recycling technology. Pharmacycle provides the mechanism to achieve this, and local processing capabilities ensure that all recovered materials from blister packs stay right here in Australia! You can find a pharmacy near you that has a collection bin by searching here but FYI Blooms The Chemist has launched this initiative across its entire network of more than 110 stores.

BREAD TAGS

This is a good one – did you realise those lil plastic tags on your bread-bag can’t be recycled in your kerbside bin? They are too small for regular recycling machines. But Aussie Breadtag for Wheelchairs has stepped up to the task. They’re an amazing charity which since 2018 have recycled 8,089 kg of Aussie bread tags to date. The tags are recycled locally, raising funds to provide wheelchairs for people in need. Do something good for the planet, and someone else. Get collecting those plastic bread-tags! You can post directly to Aussie Breadtag for Wheelchairs, drop your bread-tags off at a collection point or become a collection point in your community.

COFFEE CUPS

Okay, the best way to reduce disposable coffee cup waste is of course to use a reuseable cup! But, for those forgetful days, did you know that Simply Cups recycles used coffee cups into materials to make asphalt, furniture, car park bumpers and even keep cups?

They’ve partnered with a whole bunch of retail outlets to provide you with more than 1,400 recycling drop-off locations for disposable coffee cups. Slurpee cups are also welcome. But of course coffee cup lids can go in your yellow kerbside bin – they  can be recycled with other hard plastics.

Find a location near you.

COMPUTER KEYBOARDS

E-waste has no place in your rubbish bin! Electronic devices can contain toxic substances and heavy metals which leach chemicals into the soil when placed in landfill, polluting the groundwater and the air. Devices like keyboards, computer mice, and screens, as well as data-storage items like CDS or USBs can be dropped off at any participating Officeworks store.

FOOD SCRAPS

Don’t have FOMO for FOGO! Your food and organics can now be composted through a Food Organics Garden Organics bin, a kerbside service which recycles organics into top quality compost. Right now, only around 30% of Australian households have access to FOGO collection services, however the Federal Government has said they are committed to providing FOGO services to all households.

In the meantime, compost your food waste at home or keep a worm farm to keep organic waste out of landfill, preventing needless methane emissions and instead creating a nutrient-rich soil for your garden or pot-plants. And no yard is no excuse – just get the free Share Waste app that connects you as a donor (of food scraps) with your neighbours who are happy to accept a free donation for their compost bin or worm farm.

LIDS

Those pesky plastic lids off bottles can’t be recycled through the usual stream. But they are collected by Lids4Kids, a volunteer-run charity organisation which turns plastic lids into sustainable recycled projects to benefit local communities. Lids might be transformed into mobility aids, park benches or even cubby house tiles for kids!  Currently operational only in NSW, ACT and VIC, the other states are trying to reopen their collection facilities and are looking for volunteers! It is the responsibility of collectors to ensure lids are clean, dry, colour sorted and delivered.

Find drop-off locations through Lids4Kids Facebook.

PHONES

If you’re planning on upgrading your phone you should also consider how to responsibly recycle your old model. Your phone might be a valuable hand-me-down for a little brother or sister, or you can decide to recycle it. Mobile Muster is here for you (and for any other brand of mobile phone!) Mobile phones are manually dismantled and processed to extract metals like gold, cobalt and aluminium as well as plastic and glass. Every component in your old phone can be utilised to make something new.

PLANT POTS

You can recycle plastic pots and seed punnets through PP5! PP5 is the type of plastic used in these products, and is now also the name of your local, gardening recycling service.  Drop off your plastic plant pots, punnets and seedling trays at participating nurseries and garden centres and they will be turned into new pots, punnets and trays. Check out this amazing process vid.

RUNNING SHOES

Thanks to Treadlightly and the Australian Sporting Goods Association, your unwanted sports shoes can be responsibly recycled to give them a new life as anti-fatigue mats, as well as gym and retail flooring. Reusable components like rubber, leather and fibres are extracted from your shoes at the local recycling facility and then converted into new products.

Treadlightly take a range of footwear (but not all!) including athletics lifestyle shoes, sports shoes, thongs and slides, football boots, hiking boots, work boots and gum boots. Unfortunately, shoes like heels, pumps or slides are not currently collected.

TreadLightly collection points are located at active-wear and shoe stores, and can be found here.

SUNGLASSES & READING GLASSES

Sunglasses and reading glasses can be recycled through Specsavers and Lions Recycle For Sight. To make a difference, simply bring your pre-loved glasses into your local Specsavers store and place them in the glasses recycling box, or hand them to a team member. Your specs will be delivered to people in need overseas.

And that’s just the start of Australia’s recycling opportunities! To make things easier, an incredible app and website called Recycle Mate has launched Australia-wide.  This shmick resource helps you recycle wherever you are in Australia. You can enter the name of an item you would like to recycle and Recycle Mate will give you free disposal advice, specific to your location. So what are you waiting for?

Learn the right way to recycle. 

By Nicki Martin