Refresh your recycling knowledge

It’s not always clear what items go in which colour bin, but Council has put out a handy guide to help.

National Recycling Week was Monday 7 November to Sunday 13 November, and Council used the occasion to clear up what items go in the red garbage bin, the yellow recycling bin, and the green greenwaste bin.

The red garbage bin is for items that can’t be recycled such as plastic bags, food waste, broken glassware and ceramics, and other non-recyclable, non-hazardous materials.

Soft plastic items can be taken to participating Coles and Woolworths stores for specialised recycling through the redcycle program, but they can’t go in your yellow bin.

Things that are suitable for your yellow recycling bin are glass bottles and jars, steel and aluminium cans, clean aluminium foil bunched to the size of a tennis ball and paper and cardboard (non-waxed). Hard plastic bottles and containers numbered #1, #2, and #5 can also go in the yellow bin.

If in doubt, leave it out – putting the wrong items in the recycling bin can damage machinery at the sorting facility, or contaminate clean recyclables, meaning your whole bin of recyclables will end up in landfill.

If you have a green-lidded greenwaste bin, you can put leaves, weeds, flowers, garden prunings, and grass clippings in it, which will be turned into compost at Pinegro in Mount Wallace.

For more information, head to www.moorabool.vic.gov.au/Waste-and-environment/Household-bins.