Welcome to the September edition of the HOW newsletter

Hello everyone,

In this edition, get tips for recycling and reducing waste during the COVID-19 pandemic, be inspired by ideas for upcycling unwanted clothing, find out about the results of recent bin audits and more.

Top tips for reducing waste during the COVID-19 pandemic

As people endeavour to protect themselves against COVID-19, you may have noticed a rise in all things disposable. Unfortunately this has resulted in more waste. To keep your waste to a minimum, consider the following:

• Choose reusable items that you can clean, refill and use again repeatedly instead of disposable items, such as a reusable drink bottle instead of single-use plastic bottles for water
• If you order takeaway meals, request no cutlery and use your own instead
• Choose package free fruit and vegetables
• Repair rather than replace
• Get creative and make new things from old, for example old gift cards and wrapping paper can be used to make new gift cards whilst unwanted pillow cases and linen can be used to make face masks
• Reduce food waste by planning meals, shopping with a list (and sticking to it!), ensuring your food is stored correctly and by making new meals from last night’s leftovers
• Compost your food scraps or put them in your food and garden waste bin (the one with the lime green lid) for collection

Recycling tips

With more time at home, you may be cooking more or receiving more deliveries. You may be generating more waste. Despite this, it is important to continue to separate recyclables from garbage. Here are some tips about what to do with the most common types of household waste.

Place these items in your yellow-lidded recycling bin:

• Plastic bottles, containers and trays
• Steel and aluminium cans, foil and trays
• Glass bottles and jars
• Paper and cardboard

Items that can't go in your yellow-lidded recycling bin:

• Anything in a plastic bag (including recyclables)
• Clothing and shoes
• Polystyrene
• Food waste
• Soft scrunchable plastics like plastic bags, bread and pasta bags

Food waste can go in your lime green-lidded garden waste bin. If you don’t have one you can order one by calling Council on 1300 322 322. Alternatively, food waste can composted at home.

Alternatives to landfill do exist for clothing, shoes, soft scrunchable plastics and some types of polystyrene. See our A – Z Waste and Recycling Directory for options. These items can also be disposed of in your garbage (landfill) bin.

Waste audit results

Each year, Council audits household bins to check if waste is being disposed of correctly.

This is important to limit contamination from the wrong things being placed in bins. Contamination makes the bin collection service more expensive, compromises the sorting of materials and poses a risk to the workers involved in sorting. Contamination can therefore result in recycling or food and garden waste being sent to landfill.

Our most recent audit revealed that so far in 2020-21:

• The recycling contamination rate was 16.4 per cent by weight for single unit dwellings (up from 12.6 per cent in 2018-2019). This means that on average, 16.4 per cent of items in household recycling bins weren’t recyclable through the kerbside collection system.
• The recycling contamination rate was 27.3 per cent for households in multi-unit developments (up from 24.1 per cent in 2018-2019).
• The main recycling bin contaminants were bagged rubbish and bagged recyclables. Please keep these things out of your recycling bin.
• There was also some contamination from non-recyclable hard plastics such as toys, buckets, broken pieces of plastic and straws, from clothing and textiles such as pillows, blankets, wash cloths and soft toys, and from soft plastics, e-waste and timber/ wood. They also need to be kept out of your recycling bin.
• The food and garden waste contamination rate was 1.6 per cent by weight for single unit dwellings and 7.6 per cent for multi-unit developments. This is the first audit since food waste was accepted in the garden waste bin.

No audit was undertaken in 2019-20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the low food and garden waste bin contamination rate is fantastic, the increased recycled bin contamination rate is concerning. Please only use your recycling bin for accepted recyclable items.

What to do with unwanted mobile phones

How many old, unwanted mobile phones do you have taking up unnecessary space in the bottom draw or a forgotten box under the bed?

MobileMuster is a product stewardship program for mobile phones, accredited by the Federal Government and funded by major handset manufacturers and network carriers, to provide a free mobile phone recycling program in Australia.

You can recycle your old mobile phones for free, from home, by ordering a free MobileMuster mailing satchel and using this to post your mobile phones and accessories off for recycling.

Please remember to remove any personal information first.

Note: There are currently some delays with delivery services, so your MobileMuster mailing satchel may take a little longer to arrive than usual.

Simple tips to reduce food waste at home

The average household in Victoria throws away $42 per week in wasted food, two thirds of which could be avoided (Sustainability Victoria, 2020).

Over the next week, consider the foods you are throwing away. Which of these foods could have been used?

Here are some ideas for how to reduce common types of food waste:

• Leftovers – Can last night’s dinner be today’s lunch or perhaps it can be stored in the freezer for another night when you don’t feel like cooking?
• Bread – Storing bread in the freezer prevents it from going stale. Stale bread can be transformed into croutons or breadcrumbs.
• Meat – If you are throwing out lots of meat you may be buying too much. Try buying less and storing any excess meat in the freezer to prevent spoilage.
• Bagged salad – You may find pre-packaged salad goes off before you get to use it all. To avoid this, consider buying it loose in smaller quantities and ensuring it is stored correctly.
• Fresh herbs – Ensure you are storing your herbs correctly to help them last longer or consider growing your own.

From overripe fruit to delicious treats

There are lots of delicious options for overripe fruit, many of which are quick and easy to prepare.

Here are some ideas to help you make sure great taste doesn’t go to waste:

• Stewed fruit – Cut in small pieces and add a dash of water (herbs/spices optional), then cook in the microwave or on the stove. Stewed fruit is delicious on its own, but also goes nicely with yogurt or pancakes.
• Stewed fruit pastries – Wrap the stewed fruit in some pastry and bake in the oven
• Crumbles – Add crumble mix (oats, butter and brown sugar) over the top of stewed fruit and bake in the oven.
• Cakes and muffins
• Fruit smoothies ​

Composting and worm farming session recordings

Have you tried composting or worm farming before and failed? Or perhaps you have never given it a go because you didn’t know how to start?

In Council’s recent online composting and worm farming sessions, Michelle dispelled the myths and showed us just how simple and fun composting and worm farming can be.

For those of you who missed these sessions, they were recorded and are on Facebook for you to view:

• Worm farming session recording
• Composting session recording 

You don’t need a Facebook account to view these sessions.

Food and garden waste collection service

Spring is in the air

Spring has sprung and this means that many of us will have more garden waste in need of disposal. If you don’t already have a food and garden waste bin (the one with the lime green lid), now could be the perfect time to order one. 

You can order a food and garden waste bin by calling Council on 1300 322 322.

The food and garden waste collected is transformed into compost for Aussie farmers. 

Thanks to those using this service for doing so correctly. Keeping contamination to a minimum (it is currently 1.6 per cent) helps ensure high quality compost.

DIY craft ideas for the kids

Most of us are spending more time at home and for some, this means spending more time inside looking after the kids.

Craft can be a fun, engaging activity to do with your children. Using clean rubbish and recyclables in craft activities can also lead to conversations about how to sort garbage from recycling.

Here are a few basic craft ideas to get you started. Information about how to correctly dispose of these items (when relatively clean and free from contamination) is included.

• Toilet rolls (recycling bin) can be used to make animals, monsters or binoculars
• Cartons (foil lined cartons – garbage bin, other cartons – recycling bin) can be turned into buildings
• Plastic bottles (recycling bin) – The bottoms can be cut off, painted and made into flowers
• Cardboard boxes (recycling bin) can be made into buses or bird hides
• Egg cartons (recycling bin) can become caterpillars
• Tin cans (recycling bin) can be used to grow non-edible plants

There is a wealth of other craft ideas for household garbage and recycling online. Your kids might have some ideas of their own too.

From unwanted clothing to cushion or pet bed

Many of us have decluttered our wardrobes during the COVID-19 restrictions, only to find donation options for unwanted clothing are limited. Fortunately, donation is not the only option for unwanted clothing.

One relatively easy option for unwanted clothing is to repurpose it into a cushion or pet bed. The clothing can be used for either the outer material (as shown in the below video) or as stuffing.

The wonderful thing about using unwanted clothing as stuffing for a cushion or pet bed, is that you can use clothing in poor condition that ops shops and donation bins don’t tend to accept.

Upcoming online sessions

We are currently planning our Greening Our Future online events for the remainder of the year on a range of topics, including recycling and preserving.

Keep an eye on Council’s Environmental Events web page, where these sessions will be listed once details have been confirmed.

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