Waste & Recycling
Why Recycle?
Everything in our homes has originally come from a natural resource. Natural resources include timber, coal, water, oil, bauxite, and limestone. These resources make items such as steel, paper, glass, and plastics. Recycling these waste items saves landfill space, disposal costs and our precious limited natural resources.
The more items we can avoid sending to landfill the better off our community will be socially, financially, and environmentally.
Quick Recycling Benefits
- Recycling conserves raw materials that would otherwise be used.
- Making products from recycled materials generally produces less pollution, including greenhouse gases, and consumes less energy than manufacture from virgin materials.
- Recycling reduces the need for new waste disposal facilities.
- Recycling creates jobs in the collection, sorting and reprocessing areas.
Quick Recycling Facts
- Australia is one of the highest producers of waste per head of population in the world. We are ranked second, behind the USA, in terms of domestic waste generation.
- Every year each Australian sends around 3.5 kilograms of steel cans to the landfill. That is enough steel to make 40,000 fridges!
- In 2003 over 1 billion newspapers were recycled in Australia - a recycling rate of 73%. That makes Australians the best newspaper recyclers in the world.
- Every tonne of paper recycled saves almost 13 trees. Its saves 2.5 barrels of oil, 4100 kW of electricity , 4 cubic metres of landfill space and 31,780 litres of water.
- Recycling PET bottles saves 84% of the energy it takes to make PET bottles from raw materials.
- By recycling one aluminium can you are saving enough energy to run your TV for 3 hours.
- Each cardboard milk carton can be recycled into 5 sheets of office paper.
Sources
Visy Recycling
Planet Ark
WSN Environmental Solutions
Cleanup Australia
Steel Can Recycling Council
NSW Department of Environment and Conservation
Earth 911