A month after it was announced that recycling collected in the yellow lid bins would be sent to landfill, Ipswich City has responded well to reduce recycling contamination.
Works, Parks and Sport Committee Acting Chairman Cr David Morrison said recycling operations had resumed from May 22 under a new 12-month contract council signed with Visy Recycling.
“So far we have sent 23 trucks or 285 tonnes to Visy in the first week,” Cr Morrison said.
“This is an encouraging start. I sincerely thank Ipswich residents for responding to our Recycle 4 message.”
Council kicked off its Recycle 4 campaign last month, targeting four specific categories of recycling for residents to put in their yellow lid bin for the fortnightly kerbside collection. They are:
- Paper – newspaper, magazines, junk mail, office paper
- Plastic – bottles and containers (milk, soft drink and shampoo bottles; yoghurt and ice-cream tubs)
- Cardboard – boxes including pizza boxes
- Cans and tins – aluminium and steel (drink cans, food tins and aerosol cans)
“The new 12-month recycling contract signed by council means we must get contamination rates down from the current 50 per cent to 15 per cent or lower,” Cr Morrison said.
Council will be undertaking a detailed recycling audit program to determine the city-wide contamination rate and then track improvements over a number of months.
Cr Morrison said results would be published and hopefully reveal residents were recycling right and on target to meet the 15 per cent figure.
He encouraged people to sign up to the Ipswich Bin App or visit the Ipswich City Council web page for more detailed information on recycling.
The recyclables are pushed into a truck to go to Visy.
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