Pick up good year long habits during National Recycling Week
What’s the big problem with takeaway coffee cups? Can aerosols go in the bin? Why is scrunching up foil so important?
If you want some top tips that will help you avoid waste and become a recycling champion, then Sunshine Coast Council’s experts can help.
It’s National Recycling Week, when more than 650 students and people will take part in a refresher course on why it’s important to reduce, reuse and recycle and how to do it correctly.
Sunshine Coast Council’s Waste 2 Resource Education Team is presenting to schools, early learning centres, community groups and businesses from Mooloolah to Peregian this week (November 7 to 11).
Environment and Liveability Portfolio holder Councillor Maria Suarez said it was great to see residents so keen to learn more, or refresh their knowledge, on recycling.
“National Recycling Week helps to remind us of good recycling habits we can adopt all year long,” Cr Suarez said.
“Our message is to reduce, reuse and recycle and even better still, avoid waste in the first place.
“It’s great to know our team is busy spreading these messages during National Recycling Week – for those who miss out, our popular waste education presentations can be accessed all year long
“If you don’t get a chance to listen to a presentation, I encourage you to jump on our website where we have a fantastic Recycle Right video series with plenty of good recycling and avoidance advice.”
Sandie Johnson from Envirocom, who delivers waste education workshops on behalf of council, said her talks shared her top tips for recycling correctly and avoiding waste.
“It’s also a chance for some serious myth busting,” Mrs Johnston said.
“Some of the common queries we answer are – yes – aerosols can go in the recycling bin.
“The single use takeaway cups you get from fast food outlets can’t be recycled because the cups are coated in plastic.
“Foil can be recycled if you scrunch it into a ball larger than a golf ball.
“And please remember to recycle your dead batteries at a council resource recovery centres.”
Other top tips include:
- keep it simple – plastic bottles and containers only–no soft plastics, toys or nappies
- keep it clean – all containers and bottles need to be empty of food, drink and other contents
- keep it safe – for our workers and people sorting your recycling
- keep it loose – don’t put your recycling in plastic bags
- size does matter – nothing smaller than the size of a yogurt pot in your recycling bin.
And our top tip is to rethink your waste and avoid in the first place if you can.
You can book a free Waste 2 Resource presentation for your school or group at any time of the year by searching waste education on at sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au.
