Brisbane City Council is reminding residents to recycle their Christmas wrapping after the amount of waste ending up landfill fell by 44 kilograms per person last year.
City Business Chair David McLachlan said Brisbane residents had done a great job and urged them to not to let recycling become a good habit they let lapse at Christmas.
“Along with the cheer and joy, Christmas also brings a lot of rubbish like wrapping paper, cards and food packaging such as bottles and jars,” Cr McLachlan said.
“People therefore need to be as vigilant as ever as to what they throw into which bin.
“It will only take a few extra minutes to do it properly and will ensure the year’s good work is not undone.”
Brisbane residents recycled 102,503 tonnes of materials including green waste in 2008/09, an increase on the 96,569 tonnes recycled in 2007/08.
This was coupled with a fall in the amount of rubbish ending up in landfill from 352 kilograms per person in 2007/08 to 308 kilograms in 2008/09. This figure was at 408 kilograms per person when Lord Mayor Campbell Newman was elected in 2004.
However Cr McLachlan said 29 per cent of domestic waste from wheelie bins sent to landfill was still made up of recyclable material.
“If we used our yellow-top bins to their full potential, we could save about 150,000 tonnes of rubbish from ending up in landfill each year,” Cr McLachlan said.
“One way we will be dealing with this is through our TowardsZeroWaste strategy, which we will be launching early next year.
“We’re also maximising the amount of rubbish we can collect by returning to separate trucks for recycling and general waste, and rolling out green-top bins so people can recycle their grass and garden clippings.”
He said residents could also visit www.GreenHeartCitySmart.com.au for useful information including a list of recycling DOs and DON’Ts.
Items that can be recycled in the yellow-lidded bin
• Cardboard gift and toy boxes
• Christmas cards, envelopes and Christmas crackers
• Paper wrapping
• Glass bottles and jars
• Pizza boxes (with any excess food scraped off)
• Food packaging
• Steel tins and empty aerosol cans
• Aluminium cans
• Biscuit and sweet tins
Items that can’t be recycled in the yellow lidded bins
• Cellophane
• Styrofoam and polystyrene packaging
• Bubble wrap
• Tissue paper and foil wrapping paper
• Plastic bags
• Tinsel (most Christmas decorations)
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