After increasing levels of contaminated kerbside recycling at the Veolia Echuca Materials Recovery Facility, Campaspe Shire Council has launched an education campaign to stop waste ending up in landfill unnecessarily.
As a result, some shire residents will find an information tag attached to their red, yellow or green bins indicating if the contents of the bin are correct or incorrect.
Mayor Adrian Weston said the trial is part of an education program to help the community understand what can and cannot go in bins.
“Council’s waste contractor Veolia will be checking bins as they are collected. Bins that contain the wrong items, are too heavy, overfull or placed in the wrong location may receive a notice that outlines what needs to be corrected before their next collection,” he said.
“When waste isn’t sorted into the correct bins it becomes more expensive to sort and may result in large amounts of waste going to landfill that should be recycled or turned into compost.
“Most people want to do the right thing and this program is designed to help residents make corrections once they receive their first notification.
“Residents putting the correct items in their kerbside bins may also receive a tag thanking them for doing a great job sorting their waste.”
Contaminated recyclable material arriving at the Echuca facility includes soft plastic, building material, food, garden waste, textiles, polystyrene and items put in plastic bags.
“Often the community is not aware that a large volume of what they place in their recycle bin is sorted by local people from our region. It is a dangerous job when items such as syringes and chemicals, which shouldn’t be in the recycle bin, need to be handled,” Cr Weston said.
An A to Z waste and recycling guide is available on council’s website and customer service centres which outlines what items should go in red, yellow and green bins or other locations to dispose of waste.