By Jason Head
The City of Melville has hosted a workshop to try to help its residents better understand the concept of recycling.
What can you recycle – City of Melville Q&A tackles confusion. Photo by Jason Head
The council’s environmental officer Kellie Fowler said that the event was prompted by public interest and confusion when it comes to what can be recycled and what can’t.
“In the environment centre, people come in and they want to be conscious of the environment and they want to do the right thing,” she said.
On the list of things that can’t be recycled are meat trays, long-life milk cartons and packing tape attached to cardboard boxes.
The item that caused the most confusion was soft plastics, which are best identified by the noise they make when scrunched, earning them the catchy title of ‘soft and loud’ plastics.
The event is part of the City of Melville’s transition to a so-called FOGO bin system, which sees the regular two wheelie bins replaced with three to cut down on landfill waste.
The event started with a general information session to broadly cover the changes to recycling, followed by a short video tour of the Regional Resource Recovery Centre in Canning Vale.
It included food during a short break, after which there was a prize draw which saw guests searching under their seats for tokens that they could exchange for environmentally friendly, re-usable prizes such as travel mugs and shopping bags.
Guests had also been encouraged to bring along rubbish they weren’t sure about so they could learn what to do with these items.
Fowler said she thought the event had been a success, given the great turn out of locals.
“I think we’ve got a wide variety of people; some more younger people would be good as well,” she said.
Attendees Michaela and Helen Doyle said the event was useful.
“I learned a few things about plastics, I mean I’ve been putting meat trays in… but you’re not allowed to,” Helen said.
“Just to know… where to put your hazardous stuff,” Michaela said.
More information on recycling changes can be found on the City of Melville website here, or the Recycle Right website here.
For virtual tours of the SMRC and RRRC facilities, click here.