It’s National Recycling Week!

Published on 09 November 2020

National Recycling Week (Monday 9 – Sunday 15 November) is a good time to think about how we can reduce our waste and give our pre-loved goods and materials a second chance at life through re-use and recycling.

Reducing our waste not only keeps valuable materials out of landfill it also benefits the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and our need for new materials. Reducing and reusing can also save you money.

We offer a range of free services to help you recycle your unwanted goods – including e-waste, food waste, batteries and more.

E-waste

E-waste needs to be kept out of landfill as it leaches hazardous materials like mercury and lead into our environment. E-waste also contains valuable materials that should be re-used instead of being lost to landfill.

Our e-waste collection service allows you to book in a free collection of your unwanted e-waste – like computers, TVs, printers, mobile phones and more. We then collect your e-waste from your kerb or rear lane the next business day.

To make a booking:

• Download and use the Woollahra Council App (available via Apple app store of Google Play)
• Book online
• Call 9391 7000

In just under a year, we have collected 21.5 tonnes of e-waste for recycling using this service – what a great result for our environment.

Food waste

Did you know that we could halve the amount of waste our local area sends to landfill each week just by composting our food waste instead of chucking it in the rubbish bin?

Our Kitchen to Compost service allows you to compost your food scraps by simply placing them in your green-lid organics bin (instead of your red-lid garbage bin). We then do the composting for you.

If you’d prefer to create your own compost at home, check out our Compost Revolution program, which gives you an 80% discount on the cost of a compost bin or worm farm!

Battery recycling

Batteries should never be disposed of in your red-lid garbage bin as they can spark fires in our garbage trucks and they leach harmful chemicals into the environment in landfill. They also contain valuable materials which should be recycled.

To help you recycle your old batteries, we’ve installed a battery recycling bin at Kiaora Place, Double Bay, outside the library entrance.

In less than 12 months, this bin has collected more than 25kg of batteries for recycling! Well done Woollahra.

Recycle right!

Using your yellow-lid recycling bin helps to keep valuable resources out of landfill and reprocess them into new items. This helps our environment by reducing the need for natural resources, saving water, energy and greenhouse emissions.

When it comes to recycling, getting the right items in the right bin has never been more important. Putting the wrong items in your recycling bin can contaminate a whole truckload of recycling and put it at risk of being rejected – undoing all your good work.

Plastic bags are still the biggest source of contamination in our recycling bins. Never use plastic bags to bag/wrap recycling, just place items loosely into your yellow-lid recycling bin at home.

Remember you can recycle almost all food and beverage packaging that comes from the supermarket including steel and aluminium cans, glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles and tubs, paper and cardboard. If in doubt – leave it out.

Read more about recycling and what can and can’t go in your yellow-lid bin.

Want to know more?

For more ideas on how to responsibly recycle or re-use your unwanted goods including furniture and kids items read how to give your unwanted goods a second lease on life.

We also provide more tips about sustainable fashion in how to look fashionable without harming the planet.