What are the difference Recycling Streams which you can choose from?
RECYCLING
Yellow is the Australian Standard colour for Can and Bottle Recycling, so this yellow system with clear pictorial labels is easily recognisable, which reduces contamination and limits training requirements. Yellow bases are also available for an even brighter system.
Recycling our limited resources is critical to limit the environmental impact on landfill sites and reduce our requirements to source new material through mining and deforestation. Often recycling a resource is also more efficient using less energy than making the same product from raw materials. For example, glass can be recycled an infinite number of times, and by recycling just one glass jar, you can save enough energy to power a fluorescent bulb for 20 hours.
LANDFILL
Red is the Australian Standard colour for waste sent to Landfill, so this red system with clear pictorial labels is easily recognisable, which reduces contamination and limits training requirements. Red bases are also available for an even brighter system.
Since, the worlds resources are limited, sending items to Landfill limits the reuse of precious resources, and also creates environmental risks given the toxins, micro-plastics and gases associated with Landfill sites, which can escape into the wider environment. The aim of sustainability programs should be to minimise Landfill streams, and in leading organisations Landfill is eliminated with conscious sustainable ordering practices as well as recycling programs.
BLUE
Blue is the Australian Standard colour for Paper Recycling, so this blue system with clear pictorial labels is easily recognisable, which reduces contamination and limits training requirements. Blue bases are also available for an even brighter system.
Every tonne of paper recycled saves more than 12 trees. These trees could have taken generations to grow, and as a critical part of a delicate ecosystem, they often house and support a huge range of animals and plants. Recycling paper is also often more efficient with over 4,000 kilowatts of energy and 30,000 litres of waste being saved for every tonne of paper recycled.
CO-MINGLE
Yellow is the Australian Standard colour for Recycling, so this yellow system with clear pictorial labels is easily recognisable, which reduces contamination and limits training requirements. Yellow bases are also available for an even brighter system.
Co-mingle recycling includes cans and bottles as well as paper and cardboard. This option should be selected if your Waste Collection and Processing partner sends your precious recyclables to a MRF facility (Materials Recovery Facility) as a combined stream, where it is then separated for recycling.
Recycling these precious materials are essential to limit the environmental impact of landfill sites and reduce our requirements to source new material through mining and deforestation.
COFFEE CUPS
Black is our standard colour for Coffee Cups to ensure it is clearly differentiated from other streams. This colour, along with the coffee cup shaped aperture and clear pictorial labels makes this bin easily recognisable, which reduces contamination, limits training requirements and ensures that coffee cups are being disposed of correctly.
It is estimated Australians use 3 billion disposable coffee cups each year, however unfortunately the majority of these aren’t disposed of correctly. Many enthusiastic environmentalists actually place these cups into the recycling stream, without realising that the wax coating prevents them from being recycled with standard recyclables. If the contamination of these recycling streams is over the allowable threshold, often the entire stream is sent to Landfill.
Whether separating out coffee cups for specialist recycling programs or just to reduce the contamination rates in your precious recycling streams, this unit is an effective solution.
ORGANICS
Green is the Australian Standard colour for Organics, so this green system with clear pictorial labels is easily recognisable, which reduces contamination and limits training requirements. Green bases are also available for an even brighter system.
Organics are an important stream to divert from Landfill, as they make up a large proportion of the waste currently sent to landfill sites in Australia. Increasingly across Australia, commercial composting facilities are now available, which optimise the composting process by controlling the temperature, humidity and moisture increasing the microbial activity as organics breakdown. As a result, within a few weeks organic waste is transformed into a rich compost, just as nature intended.
SOFT PLASTICS
Orange is our standard colour for Soft Plastics, so this orange system with clear pictorial labels is easily recognisable, which reduces contamination and limits training requirements.
Soft plastics are the number one form of contamination in many recycling streams. When sent to a MRF (Materials Recovery Facility), soft plastics are difficult to separate and can jam the facility. If collected independently as a unique stream, they can be recycled quite successfully.
The good news is that the recovery of these plastics, when separated is becoming more common even in household recycling through commercially sponsored programs such as Redcycle.
DRY WASTE
Brown is our standard colour for Dry Waste, making this brown system with clear pictorial labels easily recognisable. Such features reduce contamination and limit training requirements.
Dry Waste is an additional stream which is growing in popularity as more organisations and community spaces focus on zero waste. Dry Waste is made predominantly of those common, yet difficult to recycle materials, such as soft plastics and Coffee Cups. Such Dry Waste has high calorific properties and so this material can be used to burn as an alternative fuel, preventing Landfill and replacing raw resources such as coal and timber.
