Northern Rivers residents are being reminded that ‘what goes around comes around’ as North Easte Waste and local councils celebrate National Recycling Week from November 13-19.
Planet Ark’s theme for this year’s event – What goes around comes around – reminds us that much of what we currently send to landfill is actually valuable material that could be reused, repurposed, recycled and kept in circulation.
North East Waste and its member councils have already been working to encourage a regional shift to a ‘circular economy’ through recent initiatives including the Reuse and Repair Trail and Secondhand Saturday.
North East Waste education coordinator Linda Tohver said National Recycling Week was not about recycling more, but recycling better.
“It’s about quality over quantity and keeping materials in circulation for as long as possible,” Ms Tohver said.
“This benefits the environment by reducing the extraction of virgin materials for new products, as well as the resources it takes to make them.”
As part of this year’s National Recycling Week, North Easte Waste is encouraging everyone to preference reusable products, and to check if they’re recyclable.
Check it before you chuck it! The Australasian Recycling Label Program has made the process of identifying which household products can go in which bin much easier now for householders. Keep an eye out for the instruction labels on common household items (eg. meat trays and cheese containers) that shows which bin each component of the packaging can go into as well as where recycling can occur.
Also, see our guide to recycling ‘beyond your bin’ here:
- Return and Earn – Currently accepts drink containers such as cans, beer
and mixer bottles, cartons, juice boxes and poppers.
- Various take- back schemes through TerraCycle are
now in place for a variety of beauty, self-care and dental products.
- Handheld and car batteries, paints, oils, gas bottles, fluoro globes
and tubes and smoke detectors are accepted for FREE at any of the
north coast’s Community Recycling Centres (CRC).
- For small quantities of some problem wastes, such as handheld batteries
and mobile phones, residents have access to the region’s network of 30
FREE Community Recycling Stations (CRS) installed by Councils and North East
Waste. They can be found at various easy to access locations across the
region including some libraries, Council Administration Centres and Community Centres.
- Most handheld batteries can also be recycled at any B-cycle drop off point
available at participating retailers including Woolworths, Coles, Aldi,
Bunnings and Battery World.