Plastic bags and recycling don't mix

JR Richards regional manager Glynn Stewart said it was the most common garbage collection rule broken by residents followed by household waste, food scraps, clothing, and electrical goods making its way into recycling bins.

“All this material is hand separated so it makes it very difficult for our sorters, they don’t have the time to tear [the bags] open,” he said.

“[Residents] have to throw it all in the bin loose, it makes it so much easier.”

Garbage collectors look inside every bin with a CCTV camera onboard the truck before they collect the contents.

An orange warning sticker is placed on bins that have contaminated recycling, are facing the wrong way, overfilled, too heavy, behind a tree or vehicle, or too far from the kerb.

“It’s three strikes and you’re out,” Mr Stewart said.

“On the final warning the recycling bin is removed and you have to go the office and sign a statutory declaration.”

He said so far this year three bins had been taken away from residences in Orange.

“It’s very rare,” he said.

“We try to be quite fair and talk to people and not go to those lengths.

“Generally when you raise it with people they’re receptive, sometimes it’s new people to the area.”

Mr Stewart said 6 per cent of the contents collected from recycling bins was household waste which had to go to landfill.

“It has the potential to contaminate good recycling,” he said.

“We’re always conscious of trying to decrease that amount.”

clare.colley@ruralpress.com