Waste Essentials
Posted by Jo on 13 March 2008
How can you tell what is recyclable?
You are generally safe to assume that your council kerbside collection will accept and recycle metals, paper and glass, but to determine which plastics are accepted in your council area you need to contact the local council or look on their website.
There are about 50 different groups of plastics, with hundreds of different varieties. All types of plastic are recyclable. To make sorting and thus recycling easier, the American Society of Plastics Industry developed a standard marking code to help consumers identify and sort the main types of plastic. These types and their most common uses are shown by a triangular mobius loop with a number inside. This is generally displayed on the bottom of plastic containers.
Most councils recycle 1-3 and many recycle the full range. The materials that are accepted depends on the waste recycling contractor and facilities that the materials are taken to.
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PET | Polyethylene terephthalate - Fizzy drink bottles and oven-ready meal trays |
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HDPE | High-density polyethylene - Bottles for milk and washing-up liquids. |
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PVC | Polyvinyl chloride - Food trays, cling film, bottles for squash, mineral water and shampoo. |
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LDPE | Low density polyethylene - Carrier bags and bin liners. |
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PP | Polypropylene - Margarine tubs, microwaveable meal trays. |
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PS | Polystyrene - Yoghurt pots, foam meat or fish trays, hamburger boxes and egg cartons, vending cups, plastic cutlery, protective packaging for electronic goods and toys. |
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OTHER | Any other plastics that do not fall into any of the above categories. - An example is melamine, which is often used in plastic plates and cups, nylon and acrylic. |
What do I need to do to recyclables?
Food contaminated recyclable material such as paper should not be put in the recycling bin. But for recyclable plastics clean off food scraps before throwing in the recycling bin. Make sure you don’t put your recycling in plastic bags. You don’t need to peel off labels as these are taken out during the recycling process.
What is not recyclable?
Broken glass and paper with foodstuffs cannot be recycled. Nor can food scraps, plastic bags, polystyrene, nappies, crockery and ceramics, cookware and syringes.
What about organics?
Organic materials such as vegetable peelings, food waste and garden waste can be composted or decomposed.
Composters are great for garden waste and food waste. Information on how to compost can be found on the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change website. If you don’t have room for a compost heap try a worm farm. Sustainability Victoria has details on how to build and maintain a worm farm, such as ‘can-o-worms’ ($99 excluding worms) and these can be bought from DIY stores or eco superstores such as neco.
What about meat, fish and cheese?
Generally it is not a good idea to add meat, fish or cooked foods to compost bins as they will attract rats and flies. But there are certain systems which will even compost dairy products, meat, bones and fish.
Waste digesters such as the Green Cone comprise a plastic system that is placed in the ground. The natural decomposition process is accelerated by raising temperatures, aerobic conditions and encouraging the growth of microorganisms. It doesn’t make compost but gets rid of waste by breaking it down into its components of water and carbon dioxide.
Providing a compost system is closed, rats and flies can be kept out. Closed system composters such as the Bokashi bucket ($99) can be used indoors. This uses microbes in an anaerobic environment to digest almost all food scraps creating a nutrient rich fertiliser and it can also handle meat. These can be purchased from eco superstores such as Todae.
Printer cartridges, paints and hazardous waste
To find out where to recycle items like this in your area check out recyclingnearyou.