We are in full swing with Recycling 2.0 and thank the people of Hobsons Bay for doing their part. Council appreciates the community’s patience while we work through some initial challenges.
Council is supporting our community in learning the new system in a practical way. Recycling bins are being checked before being collected. For those households getting it right, we put a sticker on the bin to say you have this in hand. For bins that contained items not accepted by our recycling partners we put a sticker on the bin to tell you what those items are. In the new recycling system we are only accepting items that will definitely be recycled and have clear local end uses.
What have we learned?
After the first four weeks, bin contamination is generally down from the first few weeks. The community is working hard to recover more resources and send less to landfill. In the last few weeks, the community in Seabrook had some of the city’s ‘cleanest’ recycling.
We also discovered that many residents city-wide are wishcycling, putting items they wish can be recycled in their recycling bins. Such items include broken toys, polystyrene and plastic bags. This rubbish in recycling bins can trash the community’s efforts. Rubbish in just one recycling bin can lead to the entire truckload being sent to landfill.
Sending material to landfill is more environmentally damaging, wastes the recycling efforts of others and costs our ratepayers more money, as landfill is more expensive.
If you don’t know whether an item can go in a recycling bin, you can always ask us, otherwise the item will need to go in your landfill bin – when in doubt, leave it out!
Our recycling partners can sort Hobsons Bay’s recycling but they can’t sort its rubbish.
Rubbish bin volume
We recognise these are big changes to the way you have traditionally disposed of waste, and this may present challenges to some households. Some residents will have specific needs that require a second bin or a larger bin. Council is currently accepting requests for these bins. You can process your bin order using our online form or using our downloadable form, which can be submitted to customerservice@hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au
Remember that placing your food waste in the green bin will greatly reduce your volume of rubbish.
Thank you for helping to sort out our community’s recycling. Visit hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/recycling for more information.
