Kerbside Recycling
Your yellow 240L recycling bin is collected on a fortnightly schedule. Recyclable materials are taken to Green Triangle Recyclers in Mount Gambier for processing, which involves staff hand sorting items. To assist staff sorting materials and ensure your recycling is effective please follow these recycling tips:
- Please place items loose in your bin (if items are placed in plastic bags they are unfortunately sent to landfill),
- Plastic bags are a soft plastic that is not able to be recycled through the kerbside system - return soft plastics to a supermarket with the REDcycle program for recycling,
- Do not mix recyclables i.e. placing cans in cardboard boxes,
- Small items are hard for sorting staff to collect, generally items should be the size or a business card or larger. To recycle small items such as hard rigid plastic lids, collect them in a plastic milk bottle and place in recycling bin,
- Bottles and jars should have lids removed,
- Items should be dry and clean,
- Consider is the item one or more materials? If two or more materials combined it can not be recycled through the kerbside system i.e. foil or waxed lined carboard, medicine blister packets (plastic & foil).
Recyclable Plastic Types
Many of us have been confused by the triangular symbol with a number inside to identify what can be recycled. But this symbol is NOT a recycling symbol. It is a plastics identification code used to tell manufacturers what types of plastic the item is made from. Rigid and soft plastics can have these logos.
Rigid vs. Soft Plastics
A simple test to determine if a plastic is soft plastic - you should be able to easily scrunch a piece of plastic packaging in your hand. Soft plastics are now recyclable, however they must be returned to a local supermarket that participates in the REDcycle program, otherwise soft plastics go in the red lidded general waste bin to landfill.
Soft plastics will display this logo which identifies them as recycle only if you follow the instruction to return to store. Examples of soft plastics include: bread bags, cling wrap, biscuit outer wrapper, shopping bags, freezer bags, chocolate & muesli bar wrappers, rice & pasta packets, paper towel & toilet paper wrapping, postal bags and lolly bags.
Examples of rigid plastic include: drink bottles, milk & juice bottles, laundry & cleaning bottles, ice cream & margarine containers, buckets, clean plastic pot plants and biscuit trays.
Summary of numbered plastics that can be recycled through the kerbside recycling bins in the South East is below.
Can I Recycle?
Green Industries SA have a useful resource to help residents determine in which bin and item should be placed in. Head to whichbin.sa.gov.au for information about how and what to recycle.
For information on how to dispose of some of those ‘tricky items’ that can not be placed into your kerbside bins (e.g. e-waste, light globes, mobile phones, waste oil etc.) see our Tricky Waste page.