REVEALED: The items that Aussies are wrongly trying to recycle – causing contamination that sees millions of tonnes sent to landfill instead
- Australians wrongly putting items like food and garden waste into recycling bins
- New figures show up to 20 per cent of Sydney’s recycled waste is contaminated
- Fairfield in western Sydney had the worst rate out of city’s councils, data showed
- Food waste, clothing and broken crockery were some of the worst offenders
Australians are wrongly throwing items like food, soft plastic bags and garden waste into recycling bins, meaning the whole contents have to be sent to landfill.
Broken crockery, polystyrene, batteries, shoes and disposable nappies are also among items that people are incorrectly trying to recycle.
Clothes and plastic bags also should not be recycled with other waste and are especially bad because they can damage sorting machines.
Millions of tonnes of incorrect waste is being sent to landfills – with as much of 20 per cent of recycled waste in New South Wales being contaminated (stock image)
It comes as new figures revealed as much as 20 per cent of recycled waste in New South Wales is contaminated, according to the state’s Environment Protection Authority.
Contamination rates from councils across Sydney found Fairfield in western Sydney had the worst rate in the city, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
Food and garden waste were two of the worst contaminates, with a third of household rubbish consisting of food waste which could otherwise have been recycled.
Local Government NSW president Linda Scott said improperly recycled rubbish was one of the biggest challenges facing the state’s waste system.
‘NSW is presently not equipped to deal with the perfect storm of upcoming bans on exporting waste … (and) failure to effectively recycle and increasing waste being generated equivalent to almost 2.7 tonnes per man, woman and child in NSW in 2017/18 alone,’ she said.
‘Currently, less than half that waste is recycled.’
Waste per head in Australia’s capital cities has also increased over the past four years, according to Australian Landfill Owners Association chief executive Colin Sweet.
Local Government NSW president Linda Scott said improperly recycled rubbish was one of the biggest challenges facing the state’s waste system (stock image)
Ms Scott was referring to the ban made public last month which will prohibit the export of its recycling to other countries from as early as July 2020.
The federal government met with state and territory leaders and established a draft timeline for the nation’s waste export ban.
The ban will apply to all waste that isn’t being turned into a valuable material overseas.
The federal government put $20million towards growing Australia’s recycling industry and starting the transition to banning waste exports.