WHILE we have generally adopted recycling as part of our daily lives and are doing it effectively, 50 per cent of people are making at least one mistake when they put their bins out, according to new research commissioned ahead of National Recycling Week next week.
A new report from Planet Ark, titled The Seven Secrets of Successful Recyclers, addresses the four materials that most confuse people and the common mistakes made.
Over half the population think that Pringles tubes, broken drinking glasses and biscuit trays are recyclable in the home recycling bin, when they are not.
A quarter of people surveyed also believe that polystyrene containers, plastic bags and bread/chip packets can go in the kerbside recycling bin.
However only 34 per cent of Australians know that empty aerosols cans are recyclable in their kerbside bins.
The survey also shows that 23 per cent of people sometimes or always put their recycling in a plastic bag, then into the bin. However, items contained within the plastic bags end up being sent to landfill as the plastic bags clog most recycling machines. Recycling must be loose in the recycling bin to be sorted effectively.
One of the other key barriers to successful recycling is that only 18 per cent of people have a recycling bin in the bathroom, which means packaging like shampoo bottles, toilet rolls and aerosols are unnecessarily sent to landfill.
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