Ever wondered how much of your waste is recycled and where does it go to get recycled?
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How do you know the material you have carefully separated and placed in the yellow-lidded bin will not just end up as landfill?
Fortunately, Port Stephens Council has an excellent record of recycling its waste, evidenced by the latest community satisfaction survey where the Garbage Collection Services received an approval rating of 94.58 per cent.
For some years now, all properties in Port Stephens have received a 240-litre yellow-lidded bin (with the option to supersize to a 360-litre bin) in which all recyclables should be placed for sorting.
The bins are picked up fortnightly and the contents delivered to the materials recycling facility at Gateshead.
A council spokesperson said businesses could also utilise the council’s recycling service by contacting them on (02) 4980 0255 or visiting www.portstephens.nsw.gov.au.
“We accept hard rigid plastics including bottles, containers, plastic cutlery, bottle caps, meat and cake trays, berry punnets, paper and cardboard including empty pizza boxes, long life milk and juice containers, magazines, aluminium and steel including foil and foil trays, aluminium and steel cans, glass including medicine, wine and beer bottles, spread and sauce jars,” the spokesperson said.
“Items that cannot be recycled include plastic bags, plastic packaging, food or liquid, crockery or ceramics, mirrors or window glass, green waste or polystyrene/foam.
“It is important to make sure that only recyclable items are placed in the yellow-lidded bins. Placing incorrect items is called 'contamination' and this causes problems during the sorting of recyclables.
“This affects the ability of an item to be processed into a new product and in some cases, just a few contaminated bins can ruin an entire truckload of recyclables.”
The spokesperson said that plastic bags were the most common contaminant found in recycling.
“Remember not to 'bag' your recycling. Plastic bags cannot be placed in the recycling bin - they should be reused, returned to a supermarket for recycling at a plastic bag recycling station, or disposed of in your garbage bin.”
To ensure that processes at the recycling facility are efficient, the council recommends that residents follow a set of guidelines for recycling.
“All containers should be emptied and rinsed; do not squash containers, the recycling facility processes containers in their current state; paper and cardboard that has food and oil remains are not recyclable; do not shred paper; and place the lids inside the can.”
After your recycled materials have been collected, they are are taken to a recovery facility at Gateshead.
“At this facility, recyclables are sorted into their different materials - steel, aluminum, glass, paper, cardboard and plastics. They are then bailed and moved on to be manufactured into new products that can be reused and recycled again.”
There are many benefits to recycling, the most notable is the reduction of waste going to landfill. “We also reduce the need for extra resources to be extracted from our environment,” the spokesperson said.
“Recycling steel and aluminum cans for example, reduces the need for these metals to be mined, while recycling paper and cardboard products reduces the need for logging our forests. The benefits don't stop there, by re-manufacturing products from recycled materials we use less energy and reduce the need for virgin materials.”
