That’s certainly been a positive for the community with a high participation rate.
- Chris Philp
THE summer months can be a time to unwind for many people, but not for local waste collectors.
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In fact it’s one of the busiest times for Wheelie Waste – the business responsible for collecting recycle bins in the city.
Wheelie Waste general manager Chris Philp said it had been an extremely busy time, with the Warrnambool City Council offering two extra collections over Christmas. “One of the things that Warrnambool has done proactively is offer an extra collection service over a couple of weeks,” Mr Philp said.
“That’s certainly been a positive for the community with a high participation rate.”
Mr Philp there had even been some requests to extend the additional collections for a longer period in future.
The warmer weather and visitors to the city results in more items being recycled, Mr Philp said. “We have the visitors at holiday parks and with the warmer weather people tend to frequent picnic areas and get out and have more takeaway products.”
Mr Philp urged residents to ensure they were not placing items in their bin that could not be recycled.
“Contamination is always an issue, particularly at this time of the year,” he said.
“We’ve got pretty good recyclers in the Western District – participation is up there – but we do find some contamination.”
Mr Philp said some of the contamination was likely due to a lack of awareness, but there few some residents that used the recycling bin as a back-up if their general waste bin is full.
He said there was some confusion around items such as plastic or glass. “I think there’s a concensus that if it’s plastic, it’s recyclable or if its glass, it’s recyclable – that can create some confusion. For example pane glass – like a house window can’t be recycled.”
Green waste is another contaminant Wheelie Waste finds on occasion.
Some of the items which cannot be placed in your recycling bin include:
- Plastic bags and soft plastics
- Bagged recycling
- Polystyrene