We Asked A Recycling Company Worker What We’re All Doing Wrong It’s A Lot

Australia’s recycling habits have been lacklustre for a while now, especially in comparison to other countries such as South Korea. Just last year, it was reported that only 16% of Australian plastics were recycled due to poor infrastructure. This number is only expected to get worse as well as Coles and Woolworths just recently announced that they will be discontinuing their soft plastic recycling program

$250 million 20 per cent of kerbside recycling recycling 30 times more 94% of What are some common mistakes people make with recycling? What are the most common recycling myths? Do you ever miss plastic straws when a paper straw goes soft? Is there an alternative solution that could be on the horizon? What are some ways Australia’s recycling industry can do better? Should everyone have another bin for recycling to help with sorting? (Plastic, glass, paper, etc) Should we be washing out our plastics and recycling them? What are the vital impacts of recycling? With Coles and Woolies no longer allowing for soft plastic recycling, what options do we have for soft plastic recycling? check this out! What is something you wish everyone knew about your recycling? What are some surprising things you’ve learnt during your time as a recycling worker? Have there been any exciting or huge announcements to improve recycling? website. Containers For Change

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giving Australians fewer options to ethically recycle. The fallout from this move has led environmentalists to beg people to not put their soft plastics in with their other recycling, meaning more plastic is ending up in our landfills and eventually our oceans. This year the Australian government has pledged up to in funding for new recycling infrastructure through the Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF), aiming to help more products be reused and remanufactured. While there are issues in infrastructure to blame for Australia’s significant disaster in recycling, there is also plenty of user error. In 2021, it was reported that up to (540,000 tonnes) had been contaminated due to improper materials being placed in the recycling bin. Fortunately, Australians are than they were in the ’90s, however, in 2019, a report came out that over Australians are messing up recycling, despite 60% being confident they were doing it correctly. There are tons of myths about how to properly recycle. To help debunk some of these myths and provide some optimistic information, we spoke to the Circular Economy Manager at Containers for Change about options Australia has to improve on an infrastructure and local level. Don’t put your recycling in a plastic bag, just put it loose in your kerbside recycling bin! If you aren’t sure about the correct way to recycle, The Australian Recycling label (introduced in 2018) takes the confusion out of recycling and can be found on most packaging. That it all goes to landfill anyway, which isn’t true. Most of the recycling gets recycled, however, if the recycling is contaminated (there are things in the bin that shouldn’t be) then it might end up in a landfill. So we can all do better with educating ourselves so we know exactly what’s in and what’s out. There are now so many reusable straws on the market made from silicone, glass or stainless steel. They come In fancy cases including a cute little cleaning brush so you can pop one in your handbag or backpack and always have one at the ready. We need more manufacturing to manage the recycling materials and recycle them into new products. The consumer can make better choices by buying products with recycled content, so we build a demand for the materials we are recycling. This depends a bit on your local council but in general, it is not necessary. If you have the space, consider implementing a compost or worm bin to manage our organics as they make up 60% of the waste that goes to landfill. And of course, we encourage recyclers to cash in their eligible drink containers for a 10-cent refund with Containers for Change. You may find it easier to store these separately in a box or bin before taking them to your local refund point. To rinse, or not to rinse your recyclables, that is the question! The good news is you do not need to wash out your recycling, but a quick rinse to get the worst of the food or liquid (e.g. from yoghurt tubs and milk drinks) will help with the smells, particularly in summer! By recycling, we reduce the amount of waste, such as plastic in our environment and our waterways. If we don’t recycle our plastic better there may be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050! Currently, the world only re-uses 9% of all the materials we use from our planet. Recycling and reusing materials such as plastic, aluminium, paper and glass means we need fewer virgin materials. Recycling materials to make new products uses less energy than using virgin materials so through recycling we can reduce CO2 and greenhouse gasses. Unfortunately, we do not have many recycling options for soft plastic, so the best thing is to try and avoid it altogether. Use a veggie mesh bag for your vegetables and fruit, buy in bulk or sign up for refillable schemes. You can also get creative with some DIY crafting, like making tote bags, picnic rugs or placemats, I wish people would be a bit more mindful about where they put their waste! One half-eaten hamburger thrown into a recycling bin can mean that all of the recycling within will be sent to a landfill. So 100 people can be doing the right thing, putting the correct materials in the yellow top bin… only for it to be ruined by just one person. The challenge with bio-based / compostable packaging. Many people think this goes into recycling…but it really needs to be (commercially) composted. So if there is no organics bin to put it in… it has to go into the landfill bin. In a landfill, bio/compostable products are worse than actual plastics as they release methane which releases 80x more heating power than CO2! We are hoping to expand the containers eligible through the Containers for Change scheme in the near future. The Queensland Government recently announced a proposal to expand the scheme to include glass wine and spirit bottles. You can read more about it on our If you’re keen to start recycling more efficiently, and pick up some extra dosh on the side for doing so, visit to find your local refund point.