Orange City Council is urging householders to ensure soft plastics do not end up in their yellow-lidded kerbside recycling bin.
Recent waste audits showed soft plastics were the most common type of contaminant found in recycling bins.
Soft plastics refer to any kind of plastic item (usually packaging) that can be easily scrunched in your hand and includes items such as plastic bags, bread bags, lolly and biscuit wrappers, cling wrap, frozen food bags, pasta and rice bags and bubble wrap.
Orange City Council's Environmental Sustainability Community Committee Chair, Cr David Mallard, said it was important that soft plastics did not end up in your kerbside recycling bin.
CONTAMINANT: Soft plastics belong in the red-lidded general waste bin, not the yellow-lidded recycling bin.
"Recyclable materials from the yellow-lidded bins are sent for sorting and processing at a Materials Recovery Facility. Soft plastics get caught in machinery at the facility causing delays, placing waste workers at risk and increasing processing costs," Cr Mallard said.
When it comes to plastics, only empty rigid plastic containers such as milk and juice bottles, shampoo bottles and washing detergent bottles, and clear plastic punnets from the kitchen, bathroom and laundry can be recycled. Do not use a plastic liner for your recycling bin and
make sure all your recyclable materials are placed loose in the recycling bin and not in plastic bags.
Australians use about 70 billion pieces of soft plastics each year. Plastic packaging and single-use plastics make up 60 per cent of all litter in NSW, with lightweight soft plastics easily blowing away and ending up littering our environment.
Since the collapse of the REDcycle scheme last year there is currently no specialised soft plastic collection service, so the only disposal option for soft plastics at the moment is the red-lidded general waste bin destined for landfill.
Cr Mallard said the best way to reduce the amount of soft plastics that end up as litter or in landfill is to avoid using them wherever possible and consider alternatives.
"There are a few simple changes we can all make to reduce our reliance on soft plastics. Replace plastic supermarket bags with reusable bags, buy in bulk, choose plastic-free packaging and opt for reusable mesh bags for fruits and veggies," he said.
