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A-Z Recycling Guide

Recycling is a great way to make a positive impact on the world around us and ensure a more sustainable future for generations to come. 

By following these simple rules, you can help to conserve natural resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and decrease the need for new landfills.  

What goes in your yellow lid bin? 

  • Glass bottles and jars – beverage bottles, jam jars and sauce bottles.
  • Paper and cardboard - egg cartons, cereal boxes, newspapers and pizza boxes.
    Hint: if the bottom of the pizza box is greasy, break up the box and recycle the clean section only.
  • Hard plastic containers – milk bottles, shampoo bottles and fruit punnets.
  • Steel containers – canned food tins and pet food tins.
  • Aluminium – drink cans, empty aerosols, trays, and foil from the kitchen which should be clean and scrunched into a ball (size of a cricket ball).

Contamination refers to anything that's in your recycling that shouldn't be. In some cases, that might be the result of 'wishcycling' – when people chuck without checking, in the hope that something is recyclable.

Use the A–Z Recycling Guide or Recycle Mate app to search if an item can be recycled.

A-Z Recycling Guide recyclemate.com.au 

Remember the basic recycling rules:

  • Remove lids - lids go in the general waste bin.
  • Rinse - give each item a quick rinse or scrape out left-over food. This helps prevent contamination and ensures that the recycling process runs smoothly.
  • No plastic bags - place items loose in your recycling bin.
  • The Size Rule - Anything smaller than a credit card cannot be recycled because small items fall through the sorting machinery at the recycling facility.

  • Some everyday items that can contaminate your recycle bin

    • Greasy Pizza boxes (only dispose clean part in the recycling bin)
    • Wax lined cartons (dispose into the red lidded bin)
    • Nappies (dispose into the red lidded bin)
    • Styrofoam meat trays (dispose into the red lidded bin)
    • Soft plastics (dispose into the red lidded bin)
    • Batteries (batteries can cause fires in trucks, please drop off to your nearest Aldi/Officeworks/Battery World or any of Council’s waste facilities)
    • Chip/ biscuit packets (dispose into the red lidded bin)
    • Electronic items (old laptops, mobiles etc) - can be dropped off at Council’s waste facilities.
    • Electrical items (old kettle, toaster etc) - can be dropped off at Council’s waste facilities.

  • Council purchased an Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Melter in June 2020 with the aim of diverting polystyrene from landfill. The EPS Melter converts polystyrene into high density bricks which can be reused for various purposes such as composite decking, picture frames and skirting boards.

    Residents can drop off up to 1m3 clean polystyrene products at our Nikenbah and Maryborough waste facilities for free. For quantities over 1m3 charges apply. 

    VIEW EPS MELTER VIDEO HERE

  • Batteries should never be put in your waste or recycling bins, but they can be recycled separately. 

    Drop big batteries at any Fraser Coast Waste Facility for free (this includes laptop, power tool and car batteries).

    Woolworths, Aldi and Officeworks accept household batteries for recycling through B-cycle. You can find the nearest battery disposal point at https://bcycle.com.au/drop-off/

    B-cycling keeps batteries out of landfill, so less toxic materials end up in our ecosystem. 

     

  • Previously, soft plastics could be recycled at major supermarkets through a free program known as REDcycle. 

    The REDcycle program has been paused since 9 November 2022. So, currently there is no way to recycle soft plastics such as plastic shopping bags, bread bags, bubble wrap, fruit and vegetable bags.

    Please place your soft plastics in your general rubbish bin until further notice.

    The easy way to tell if plastic is soft or hard is the scrunch test. If it scrunches into a ball it’s soft, if it holds shape it’s hard.

    Hard plastics can go into your yellow-lidded recycling bin.

    Unfortunately, soft plastics are unable to be processed at our recycling centre because they create mechanical issues for the machinery. Please put your soft plastics in your red-lidded general waste bin.

    Council will continue to monitor and liaise with the resource recovery industry to identify opportunities to divert this material from landfill.

  • E-waste is any old, unused or broken electronic appliance including computers, mobile phones, printers and related consumables such as cartridges, CDs and batteries.

    Why should e-waste be recycled?

    E-waste contains precious resources which can be recovered and recycled into new products. E-waste recycling also ensures that hazardous substances such as mercury and lead in your electronic devices are disposed of correctly.

    You can recycle e-waste items at Council's waste facilities for free.

  • Printer cartridges can be disposed of at Officeworks for recycling through Planet Ark. 

    Plant ark

    Visit the website here.

  • As a part of Council’s recycling program, concrete that is disposed of at our waste facilities is recycled into road base and used within Council’s facilities and for road building.

    By crushing concrete into road base, every year council prevents 3,000 tonnes of concrete from going into landfill which saves 2,000 cubic meters of space, that’s almost the size of an Olympic size pool!

    To dispose of concrete at Nikenbah or Maryborough waste facilities, check the fees here. 

  • Not all products with a recycling symbol can be recycled at our Materials Recovery Facility, so remember to check the recycling fact sheet.  

Container refund scheme

Containers for Change provide you a 10-cent refund for every eligible container you return.

Eligible containers How it works

containers

Recycling Apps - download

  • This mobile app was built in partnership with Planet Ark and is one of Australia’s most comprehensive recycling mobile apps. It lets users select their council from a full list of over 500 Australian council's.

    By setting location, it enables you to find the nearest recycling drop-off spot and special waste facilities nearest to you.

    Download on iTunes or Android. 

    Recycle smart 1

  • Recycle Mate is an initiative of the Australian Council of Recycling with funding support from the Australian Government. This app helps you recycle anywhere in Australia.
    All you need to do is take a photo or type the name of the item you are interested to find about and Recycle Mate will give you disposal advise specific to your location.

    Download on iTunes or Android. 

    Recycle mate 1