Councils recycling service commenced almost 22 years ago, and we’ve come a long way since then. In 1997 the average home recycled 136.6 kilos per year, today the average is 207 kilos, a 50 per cent increase.
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The simple task of recycling has a huge environmental benefit. It diverts approximately 4500 tonnes in the Cessnock LGA every year; equal in weight to over 2500 family sized cars. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions; equivalent to taking 540 cars off the road each year.
Since 1997 we have saved 84088 tonnes from landfill, which has helped extend the life of the Cessnock Waste Management Centre. It has also reduced costs to residents and avoided the NSW Government waste levy which is paid for every tonne of waste disposed as landfill. Councils are not exempt from this levy and are forced to pass this cost on to residents. Over $300 million was paid by Councils last year with only 18 per cent returned to support waste and recycling programs. Cessnock City Council paid just under $8 million dollars of levy in 2017/18 and received approximately 2 per cent in funding for waste programs.
Recent garbage bin audits conducted by Council show that 19 per cent of the contents was recyclable packaging that should have been placed in the recycling bin. This could be due to a lack of space in the recycling bin, Council allows home owners to upsize to a larger 360 litre bin giving you 50 per cent more space for a small one off administration fee.
Some residents are recycling items that are not accepted. This can include products which may pose a safety risk to sorting staff or damage sorting machinery. To ensure workers safety, recycling bins are randomly checked prior to collection to identify which pose a risk. These bins are tagged and not collected until the following fortnight once the offending product has been removed.
The top 10 offending products are garbage, disposable nappies, textiles, styrofoam, wrong plastics, plastic bags, scrap metal, building waste, window glass and food waste. Residents are encouraged to check Council A – Z guide which is a list of accepted products. If it’s not on the list it is not accepted.
Non-accepted product is called contamination, these products slow down the sorting process, add to collection costs and impact on the ability to recycle the end product. Companies who recycle old packaging into new products require clean sorted material free of contamination.
Council spokesperson, Michael Alexander said “our residents and businesses continue to be very supportive of the service, but there is room for improvement. We need to get recyclables out of the general waste and into the recycling bin and the wrong products out of the recycling bin.”
