During National Recycling Week (8-14 November), Canberrans are encouraged to celebrate our city's strong track record on recycling and test their knowledge to help reduce household waste.
"Our community can be proud of our shared achievements to make Canberra a cleaner and more sustainable city," said Minister for Transport and City Services Chris Steel.
"In 2010-11 the amount of waste going to landfill per capita in the ACT was 0.70 tonnes. In 2020-21 waste going to landfill has reduced to 0.52 tonnes per capita.
"Canberrans have embraced the single use plastics ban which took effect on 1 July, with plastic cutlery, expanded polystyrene containers and plastic drink stirrers cut from our waste mix. Many businesses have also started removing other single-use plastic from their businesses.
"Our community has also recycled almost 108 million containers through the container deposit scheme in the last financial year. This means more than 255 million containers in total have been recycled since the scheme started in 2018.
"We have rolled out bulky waste collection services to the entire ACT, with almost 6000 bookings resulting in 778 tonnes of material being collected. Importantly, 319 tonnes of the bulky waste collected was able to be recycled or re-purposed, preventing it from ending up in landfill.
"This year a total of 24,235 tonnes of green waste was collected from ACT homes through the green bin collection service – over 50 per cent more than the previous year.
"In the next couple of weeks we will also roll out a Food Organics and Garden Organics collection pilot in Belconnen ahead of the city-wide rollout, which will see more food scraps diverted from landfill and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
While these achievements are great examples of taking everyday action on climate change, there is more work to do. A cleaner waste stream maximises opportunities for recycling so Canberrans are encouraged to refresh their knowledge on what can and can't be recycled, and opportunities to reduce household waste altogether.
"It's quick and easy to test your recycling knowledge with the ACT Government's National Recycling Week quiz. See how much you know about recycling in the ACT and discover the steps you can take to get your waste and recycling sorted," Minister Steel said.
"A great way to take action is by visiting the ACT Government's online Recyclopaedia – a searchable tool to find out how to responsibly dispose of hundreds of different items."
To take the ACT Government's National Recycling Week quiz, visit: www.climatechoices.act.gov.au
