An inner city council is adding a separate bin for glass to its regular waste collections, in a bid to dramatically reduce the amount of recycling waste it sends to landfill.
China last year threw Australia’s recycling industry into a tailspin, by effectively banning the export of our waste. The ban exposed that Victoria has little ability at present to recycle, and that the industry was more about simply exporting our waste to Asia rather than re-using it. The year before the ban started, around 4 million tonnes of recyclables were shipped from Australia to China.
Yarra had a contract with another recycler, Visy, but has since signed a new contract with other firms, and as part of its bid to cut the amount that ends up going to landfill will introduce the trial fourth bin. If the $800,000 test is successful, it will roll out the system to all of the municipality's 99,000 residents.
The trial is simultaneously trying to reduce trucks on the road collecting garbage, with all but the organics bin now collected fortnightly. The organics bin can’t be left for more than a week due to rotting and odours.Yarra is one of the city’s most highly educated and wealthiest council areas, with 48 per cent tertiary educated compared to the Melbourne-wide average of 28 per cent, and one in five of its residents on high incomes versus the city-wide average of one in 10.
a glass bin is useful af. Even fof the laziest people who dont give a crap for this or can't afford to take it to the dump
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YarraCouncil isn’t even paperless? That is the easiest and simplest way for them to reduce their impact on the environment and they haven’t done it!