Waste & Recycling

Waste Services
Electrical Waste
Lamp Recycling
Links & Contacts
Factsheets & Downloads
Recommended Reading and Viewing

Australians throw away about 10 million tonnes of waste each year! But residents of the Illawarra are working brilliantly to reduce this by:

Most importantly, thinking of ways to avoid and minimise waste in the first place;
Repairing and reusing things to maximise their lifespan;
Recycling products in the yellow top bin, and properly disposing of wastes.

worm farming and composting to reduce waste

Some examples of the simple things you can do to reduce wastes are:

Avoiding and minimising wastes:

Rent or borrow items from a friend if you won’t use them very often
Purchase goods with no or little packaging. Even better grow your own healthy package free food at home!
Carry your own reusable bags – the best are made from natural materials like silk, cotton or hemp which can be cut up for rags and will biodegrade at the end of their useful life
Use refillable containers, and take them shopping with you
Take a refillable bottle drink bottle with you everywhere you go instead of buying bottled drinks
Feed food scraps to a worm farm or pets, or compost them
Shop with a list and avoid contributing to the billions of dollars of food thrown away every year from Australian fridges, uneaten.
Put a ‘no junk mail’ sticker on the letterbox
Be a better buyer

Reusing and repairing things:

Invite friends over for a clothes swap party
Organise a street garage sale
Reuse materials, such as timber, newspapers and cardboard in and around your garden.
Reuse paper that has been used only on one side
Buy goods second hand and donate unwanted items to charity
Use rechargeable batteries – even better recharge with a solar recharger
Learn to repair, sharpen and maintain tools and other goods

Recycle and dispose wastes properly:

Be a savvy recycler, and place recyclable items in your yellow top bin
Safety dispose of items such as batteries, pesticides, paints, pool chemicals, household cleaners, motor oils and florescent light tubes at Household Chemical Cleanout days held in the Illawarra. To find out when the next clean out day is, visit www.environment.nsw.gov.au/households/cleanoutguide.htm
Use e-waste services for old electrical equipment
Sustainable Illawarra is currently planning and e-waste collection day for the regional – keep an eye out for a date coming soon

Waste Services

To find out more about waste services in Kiama, please visit:
www.kiama.nsw.gov.au

Electrical Waste

The amount of electrical waste (e-waste for short) we produce is growing at an enormous rate. It’s been estimated Australians produce 120,000 to 140,000 tonnes of e-waste every year! In a one-off grant funded Sustainable Illawarra e-waste collection day in April 2009, residents of Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama Council areas dropped off over 30,000 kg of e-waste – and 99% of this was able to be recycled.

There are also some local charities which will accept donations of certain computers for reuse, such as Computer Bank Illawarra (www.cbi.org.au, 4284 8676). For a more detailed list (many places are in Sydney however), visit

www.recyclingnearyou.com.au/computers/WollongongNSW.

There are many convenient and free ways to dispose of mobile phones for recycling through the fantastic Mobile Muster program. Lots of mobile phone shops have a ‘Mobile Muster’ collection bin where you can pop in your unwanted phone for free. Or you can pick up a post bag from participating Australia post outlets to send your phone in for recycling, or download your own postal label from

www.mobilemuster.com.au.

Visit the mobile muster website for more info, or call 1300 730 070.

The best thing we can do is try to minimise e-waste generation in the first place. Think twice about whether you really need that new computer, or speaker system, or mobile phone. If you are committed to making a purchase, try to source it second hand – on-line purchasing sites and newspapers are great for this. And when you no longer need an item, try to donate it to a charity, give it away to family or friends, or sell it, before sending it for recycling or into landfill.

The amount of electrical waste (also known as e-waste) we produce is growing at an enormous rate. It’s estimated Australians produce 120,000 to 140,000 tons of e-waste every year! It is important to keep e-waste out of our landfills, as it can contain hazardous materials. However most Councils, including the Illawarra Councils, do not yet have the facilities to separate and recycle e-waste at their waste facilities.

On November 10,11 and 12, 2011, Kiama Council will stage its electronic waste recycling program, E-cycle. This event will be held in conjunction with National Recycling Week. To find out more about this initiative, click here [1.06 Mb]

Lamp Recycling

With the phase out of incandescent light globes, there is need to consider the increased volume of compact fluorescent light globes (CFL’s) entering the waste stream. There have been a number of stories relating to the mercury content of CFL light globes, and the predicted effects of the increased volume of CFL light globes going to landfill, so Kiama Council has chosen to be proactive in its approach to dealing with this issue.

As part of Kiama Council’s, Sustainable Kiama Communities project and Council’s continuing commitment to reduce waste going to landfill, Council has partnered with Lamp recyclers to offer a lamp recycling service for its residents since November, 2008. Collection boxes are set up at the Minnamurra Waste and Recycling Depot, 466 Riverside Drive, Minnamurra for residents to discard their unwanted light globes free of charge. To date, Council has collected at total of 145kg of mixed globes. To find out more information on lamp recycling, click here [PDF, 184kb].

Links & Contacts

Composting/worm farming/bokashi workshops
Contact your local Council to find out when the next workshop is schedule. Wollongong: 4227 7111 Shellharbour: 4221 6111, Kiama: 4232 0444

Chemical Cleanout
www.cleanup.org.au/au | 131 555
The NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change regularly hold chemical clean out days in the Illawarra. On these days, you can drop off household quantities of toxic items including paints, florescent light bulbs, pesticides and batteries.

Recycling Near You
www.recyclingnearyou.com.au
1300 733 712
A Planet Ark initiative, this helpful resource lets you search by area or product to find out what can be recycled in your area.

Clean Up Australia Day
www.cleanup.org.au |1800 282 329
Find out how you can be a part of this annual national event.

Mobile Muster
www.mobilemuster.com.au
1300 730 070
Find out the many easy, free ways you can recycle your mobile phone.

Free Cycle
www.freecycle.org
A free exchange site where you can give away or receive useful items. The local Illawarra group has over 1,000 members – join at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecycle_illawarra

Rubbish Free New Zealand
www.rubbishfree.co.nz
Find out how an inspiring New Zealand achieved a challenging goal of creating less than 1kg of waste each over a year from 2008-2009.

RUM (Return Unwanted Medicines)
www.returnmed.com.au
1300 650 835
Through this great program, you can safely dispose of unwanted medicines at your local pharmacy.

Zero Waste
www.zerowasteaustralia.org
Zero waste is a visionary goal to limit our use of the Earth's resources by reducing waste to zero. It challenges us to routinely reduce, reuse and recycle all of our waste. Join in this global movement!

International Composting Awareness Week
www.compostweek.com.au
An excuse to celebrate your love of composting, or give it a go if you haven’t already! This site has some handy hints and fact sheets on composting.