New estates and areas with a higher proportion of summer holiday visitors are the fresh focus of a successful recycling education campaign, which has already seen contamination in Greater Geelong's yellow bins fall by 200 tonnes a year.
The City of Greater Geelong's revamped bin inspection program has proven highly effective at helping residents recycle correctly, checking thousands of yellow bins each week for common contaminants like plastic bags, bagged rubbish and coffee cups.
The education drive is supported by Sustainability Victoria's Small Acts Big Impact campaign, with recycling messaging and free resources going out on social media, buses, billboards and letterboxes.
Recycling contamination can be incredibly expensive for ratepayers, as it requires additional sorting, transportation and landfill fees to be disposed of properly.
Residents, as well as owners of short stay or holiday house accommodations, can check their recycling knowledge and request free recycling materials to help their household use their bins correctly on the City's website .
Meanwhile, the Small Acts campaign will continue with new posters and advertisements in high-visitor areas, while the bin inspection program moves its focus to new estates and the Bellarine.
Households that continue to contaminate after reminders will receive phone calls and may eventually have their bins rejected for collection.
Deputy Mayor Ron Nelson:
We see an uptick in recycling confusion and contamination especially in summer when more people move down or visit, and who may not be familiar with recycling in Geelong.It's easy to do a quick check before you throw something in a yellow recycling bin. As a quick rule, plastic bags, coffee cups and general rubbish don't belong in recycling.
Councillor Trent Sullivan:
The Small Acts Big Impact campaign makes recycling easier and more approachable, and it's fantastic that Greater Geelong has reduced yellow bin contamination."
