3 Ways to Boost Your Recycling
One of the commitments I’ve made to myself this year is to take that extra step when it comes to recycling in my household. It’s an achievable goal, and one that I think we should all be setting for ourselves. We all know the importance of recycling, and I know that we love our planet more than anything, but it’s time to commit to walking the walk and making sure we are going the extra mile to make a difference.
The whole issue of recycling can be extremely confusing, and in the last few years far too much conflicting information has been circulating throughout the media. However, as much as we whinge and moan about the state of the world, it is fair to say that Australia has been making progress. There are now a whole heap of initiatives in place to encourage us to recycle more, however I often think that the uptake is the most difficult part. There’s only so much our institutions can do; now, it’s up to us to take up these initiatives, make them part of our routine and normalise recycling.
So how exactly am I committing to this? Let me share with you 3 amazing programs that are making their way into my daily routine. Each of them takes just a tiny smidge of time out of my day but the difference they make is quite remarkable.
1. Soft plastics recycling at Coles and Woolworths
I’m in love with this program that has been launched by REDcycle across Australia. They have teamed up with Coles and Woolies to make sure we have a place to recycle our soft plastics. What do I mean by soft plastics? I mean items of plastic that can be scrunched up into a ball. These can be things like bread bags, frozen food packets, plastic bags and cereal liners. Our supermarkets now have large bins, usually at the front or just outside the stores, where we can drop these items off. REDcycle then recycle the soft plastics and use them to produce a huge range of recycled plastic products, from fitness circuits to sturdy outdoor furniture, bollards, signage and more. Keep a separate box next to your trash can at home and fill it with your soft plastics as you go – then take it with you to the supermarket next time you shop. Easy!
2. Return and Earn
Return and Earn is another amazing recycling scheme that helps and incentivises you to recycle your used bottles, cans and cartons. And by incentivise, I mean that you get paid cold, hard cash to drop your bottles and cans off at a Return and Earn facility. Most of these stations are self-service and in super convenient locations – there are over 600 in NSW alone! Every eligible bottle, can or carton that you return earns you 10 cents, which you can collect in money or even choose to donate. Beer drinkers and soft drink addicts – this one was made for you!
3. Community Recycling Centres
Community Recycling Centres are the best place to go for all those tricky items that you know can be recycled but you’re just not sure how to make it happen. Community Recycling Centres are permanent drop-off centres for common household problem wastes that can’t be collected via council kerbside waste and recycling services. You can drop off problem waste all year round for no charge at all. I’m talking about things like batteries, oils, gas bottles and paint. Why should you bother? Well, recycling these items saves water, energy and other natural resources. And the recycling centres are able to do some pretty cool things with our household waste. For example, paints are mixed with other waste solvents and used as an alternative to fuel in cement kilns; lead acid batteries are sent to recyclers where the lead, acid and plastic are recovered and recycled; and gas bottles have residual gas captured for reuse, and undamaged bottles re-entered into the hire industry.
So what are you waiting for? I’m calling on each and every one of you to help normalise recycling and make sure we are getting the most out of these amazing programs. After all, they’re there for us. This is our planet. Let’s make the commitment and get recycling.