New bins for city dwellers

New bins for city dwellers

Recycling is about to become a whole lot easier for 20,000 inner city residents living in houses when the City of Sydney replaces old recycling crates with new recycling wheelie bins as part of a $1.6 million roll-out.

From September, the City will provide new yellow-lid wheelie bins for single occupancy dwellings such as houses, terraces and town houses within City of Sydney boundaries.

City of Sydney Director of City Community and Cultural Services Garry Harding said the new system will increase recycling and reduce landfill.

The new bins are expected to increase recycling by about 25 per cent in the new areas from 4,990 tonnes per annum to 6,238 tonnes. This is in addition to about 11,770 tonnes of recycling collected from residential apartment buildings every year.

The new bins are fully comingled which means people don’t have to separate different types of recyclable material and they are much easier to wheel around.

The proposal is part of the City’s implementation of Sustainable Sydney 2030 which commits us to diverting 70 per cent of waste from landfill by 2014.

We expect the new bins to result in cost savings of about $2.9M over the next five years – wheelie bins are collected once a week which means fewer truck movements and less fuel, and will also result in a reduction in replacing stolen, damaged or missing crates.

This is good news for the environment too with an expected three per cent increase in domestic waste diverted from landfill and an annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of about 888 tonnes from increased recycling and reduced transport, Mr Harding said.

The City will soon be using Jack’s Gully Alternative Waste Treatment facility to help increase resource recovery from 32 per cent to 57 per cent in 2010. A new alternative treatment facility is also being investigated to divert even more waste from landfill and possibly generate renewable fuels.

Residents have been notified about the roll-out of new bins and what to do with their old recycling crates.

For more information, residents can visit www.zerowaste.org.au to watch a video and find out what changes are happening in their area.

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7 responses to “New bins for city dwellers”

  1. So glad I dont have to put up with the cockroach infest of the Eastern Suburbs. Its a Garbage Bin City.

  2. Rebecca,

    With my recycling bin and a large compost heap, I am amazed at how little rubbish now goes into the bin. I only need to put the garbage bin out every three or four weeks.

  3. Of course, you can provide as many recycling facilities as possible and make it as easy as possible for people to recycle and there are still people who can’t be bothered to take responsibility for their own rubbish or for their impact on the environment but just chuck everything in the bin meant for landfill.

  4. Interesting. Where I live in the Blue Mountains the bins can be easily taken to the backyard etc. You have good point there, Peter.

    Also collection day is simple for the trucks as the streets are relatively empty of cars. I can’t imagine what I will be like in inner city streets were cars are parked bumper to bumper 24/7. It will be a nightmare for the truck drivers unless they have offsiders moving the bins from the path to the road and back.

  5. I’m as mad as hell and I’m NOT going to take it anymore!

    Bloody nightmare – what happens for those of us who live in a ‘no verandah’ Terrace, do I trundle the damn bins through the house (in rain and sleet) or do I just leave them on the street?

    Imagine the ‘urban beauty’ of a line of terraces with two huge wheelie bins sitting on each verandah seven days a week quietly baking in the sun, (prawns, salmon and diapers – the neighbours kids not mine), during the long hot days of December and January, . Not to mention the noise of the bottles being emptied into the bins, smashing on top of each other (maybe I DO drink to much), causing deafness. And the ever popular game usually played out on a Sunday night as the clubs empty – lets tip over as many bins as we can cause that’s just FUN.

    Bloody Clover, Bloody bollicking one day a week, bloody, bloody, bloody hell.

    Here endeth the rant please continue on and enjoy the rest of your day.