Planet Ark research lifts lid on recycling bin blunders

Recycling confusion reigns, with bread bags, food, nappies and even clothes being put in the wrong bins across Australia. And this is our biggest recycling mistake.

RECYCLING confusion reigns across Australia, with bread bags, food, nappies and even clothes being put in the wrong bins.

Research has lifted the lid on the main mistakes residents make when wheeling out their recycling bins for collection.

Placing soft plastics — which include plastic bags, bread packaging and cling wrap — in the recycling bin is the biggest blunder, Planet Ark’s Waste War to Recycling Reboot report reveals.

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Bagging recyclables such as paper, bottles and cans, and adding food scraps, is the next most common error, according to surveyed local councils.

While nine in 10 people agreed recycling was the right thing to do, almost half either didn’t understand what happened to it or believed items eventually ended up in landfill.

Putting soft plastics in recycling bins is the most common mistake according to local councils.

Seven in 10 felt confident about what could be recycled.

“When the wrong items are put in the recycling bin, it can clog up recycling machines, degrade the value of recycled materials, increase waste going to landfill, and raise recycling costs,” Planet Ark deputy chief executive Rebecca Gilling said.

Planet Ark’s Rebecca Gilling says there are different recycling rules for different councils. Picture: Supplied

A recently launched Australasian Recycling Label for packaging would help reduce confusion.

Improved education and consistent policies were also needed.

“One of the problems is there can be different rules for different councils both in terms of what is accepted and how it is separated,” Ms Gilling said.

Two in five quizzed believed most kerbside recycling was recycled. But one in five thought most went to landfill. The rest were unsure.

Planet Ark’s research was based on national polls of 1000 adults and 182 local councils.

Ms Gilling said it was generally not economically viable for councils to send recyclable materials to landfill, due in part to state government levies.

China’s new restrictions on imported recyclable material had caused an oversupply of waste on the global market and added to council costs, as ­prices received for materials such as mixed plastic and paper had crashed.

Some councils have already hit residents with garbage collection fee hikes as a result.

“Other countries in Asia have absorbed some of the volume that was going to China but there are fears that those countries will also introduce their own waste bans,” the report noted.

National Recycling Week runs from November 12-18. Visit: recyclingnearyou.com.au

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@KarenCollierHS