4 September 2012

Five recycling tips from the Government

| johnboy
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Territory and Municipal Services are trying to help you help them with a list of ways to recycle your garbage better:

1. There’s a simple way to remember which plastics are recyclable. Soft plastics like chip packets, plastic film and bubble wrap can’t go in the recycling bin, but rigid plastics like plastic meat trays, biscuit trays and toothpaste tubes can.

2. Disposable nappies cannot go in the recycling bin even if the box has a recycling triangle on it or they say they are biodegradable. Nappies need to be disposed of in your green lidded rubbish bin. They cannot be recycled and in fact cause damage to sorting machines and can have health impacts on staff on the sorting line.

3. You don’t need to clean or rinse out any containers before putting them in your recycling bin. You can even leave the lids on. It will all be taken care for you at the next stage of the recycling.

4. Aluminium foil (rolled into a ball), pizza boxes and greasy paper from hamburgers and fish ‘n chips, even ones with small amounts of food attached, can all go in your recycling bin.

5. Envelopes with plastic windows as well as paper fastened with staples, sticky tape or even blu tac are all recyclable.

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Pitchka said :

As soon as my pissy little green bin is full, you bet you sweet a&s that ill start using my recycling bin.. Those bins are sufficient for couples, but throw kids in the equation (or larger families) and they are no where near big enough.

No doubt he drives his White Commodore down to the local park and feeds used packing polystyrene to the ducks so it doesn’t take up space in the bin. Probably has a bon-fire with old car batteries and junk too.

Pitchka said :

As soon as my pissy little green bin is full, you bet you sweet a&s that ill start using my recycling bin.. Those bins are sufficient for couples, but throw kids in the equation (or larger families) and they are no where near big enough.

Errrrrr – we’ve got three kids, inclduing a nappy-happy baby and our green bin is only ever about half full on pick-up days. Our recycling bin is usually full on pick-up days. We do compost organic material, but that is only a bucket load or so of material a week. Are you sure that you are recycling everything that can go in the yellow bin?

Pitchka said :

As soon as my pissy little green bin is full, you bet you sweet a&s that ill start using my recycling bin.. Those bins are sufficient for couples, but throw kids in the equation (or larger families) and they are no where near big enough.

Not sure what kind of lifestyle you lead, but the 5 of us don’t fill up our green bin every week.
Maybe stop buying so much crap.

The only time I misuse the recycling bin is when I’m wanting to throw away something that’s too big for the green bin, like old bicycles and so forth.

Pitchka said :

As soon as my pissy little green bin is full, you bet you sweet a&s that ill start using my recycling bin.. Those bins are sufficient for couples, but throw kids in the equation (or larger families) and they are no where near big enough.

I’m pretty sure you are not supposed to throw kids in either of the bins.

Pitchka said :

As soon as my pissy little green bin is full, you bet you sweet a&s that ill start using my recycling bin.. Those bins are sufficient for couples, but throw kids in the equation (or larger families) and they are no where near big enough.

Doesn’t really bother me whether you recycle properly or not, but have you thought about paying $93 a year for a larger bin?

http://www.tams.act.gov.au/live/fees_and_charges/administrative_fees

wildturkeycanoe said :

So…I take it from point 4 that a bit of left over salmonella or listeria…

The main hazard occurs when they have to clean and repair the sorting equipment after a bag full of stinkers has gummed up the works. A glass bottle goes straight through the sorting equipment without human contact, so the blue fuzz inside bothers nobody.

As soon as my pissy little green bin is full, you bet you sweet a&s that ill start using my recycling bin.. Those bins are sufficient for couples, but throw kids in the equation (or larger families) and they are no where near big enough.

Don’t get to worried about used batteries. Just pop ’em down a stormwater drain and let nature recycle them for you.

Sandman said :

C’mon Henry. If you’re gonna troll, at least be a little subtle about it.

I swear it’s true.

Maybe some Tip staff reading this will remember winding up visiting groups of schoolchildren in this way…?

wildturkeycanoe6:11 am 05 Sep 12

So…I take it from point 4 that a bit of left over salmonella or listeria attached to hamburger wrapper is fine for the recycling staff, or perhaps the lovely blue fungus that grows inside used longnecks over time, but some baby poop isn’t???

C’mon Henry. If you’re gonna troll, at least be a little subtle about it.

My daughter came home from a school excursion to the tip with a new and novel awareness: she was told, apparently, that if you throw away your drink containers separately from their lids, then the garbos have to spend all day going through the bins to find the right lids for the right drink bottles.

This information caused an unwelcome level of recycling-related obsessive-compulsive behaviour in my household for which I have for a long time been hoping to thank the Tip staff for. Thank you. I owe you one.

I always find the recycling bins at Kingston Bus Depot markets odd, they have a sign on top saying something to the effect of “If you put any food or nonrecyclable stuff in this bin, it will contaminate the whole contents (you heartless bastard).” So I must remember to print out the TAMS advice and stick it on the bin next time I’m there!

Sounds like you need a chat with your local Member!

I’m aware of Battery World – but a 40km round trip to drop off a handful of batteries every time the remote controls go on the fritz is not my idea of saving the environment.

How hard is it to put a wheelie bin at each resource centre right next to the car battery drop-off? Or at major shopping centres?

Used batteries can be dropped off at Battery World in Phillip. Not sure if there are other collection points.

Used batteries? Check with The Battery Factory in Fyshwick about car batteries, Battery World in Phillip about all other domestic batteries.

Used Apple stuff? Take them to the Apple Store.

PS: I rinse out stuff before putting it in the recycling or garbage simply to control the smell. Parfum de lait is not pleasant.

What do I do with my used batteries, TAMS!??!

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