Newcastle residents can help prevent soft plastics from going into landfill through an innovative new kerbside recycling program.
City of Newcastle will become the second council in Australia to take part in the Curby Soft Plastics Program after an initial roll-out on the Central Coast last year proved popular.
Collaborating with Australian recyclers iQ Renew and CurbCycle, the initiative gives residents a home-based option to recycle soft plastics that can’t be placed loosely in the yellow-lid bin, including shopping bags, bread bags and bubble wrap.
Deputy Lord Mayor Declan Clausen said the program would complement City of Newcastle’s suite of waste-recovery initiatives, all designed to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill.
“City of Newcastle is focused on the delivery of programs, education and infrastructure that will increase our capabilities for the recycling and reuse of waste products and reduce the number of resources going to landfill, including the proposed development of a local recycling facility at Summerhill to cater to the yellow lidded bin,” Cr Clausen said.
“By weight, soft plastics make up a small component of the household waste that ends up at the Summerhill Waste Management Centre.
“However, given their lightweight nature, they can sometimes be picked up by the wind and escape into the environment, where they pose a serious threat to our native animals and marine life.”
Currently, soft plastic items can only be recycled through community drop-off sites such as the REDcycle bins found at selected supermarkets.
The limited number of locations means that around 94 per cent of soft plastics across Australia still end up in landfill or disposed of as litter, causing significant damage to wildlife and the environment.
“The processing and conversion into a new material can be reused to make everything from low carbon cement to new plastic products and plastic film,” Cr Clausen said.
The free program will be rolled out in two stages with applications already open for the first 7,500 households.
The program will then expand to all local residents in the second half of the year.
The Curby Soft Plastics Program has over 11,000 participants on the Central Coast and collected more than 40 tonnes of soft plastics to date, which is the equivalent of about seven million plastic bags.
iQ Renew CEO, Danial Gallagher, said the success of the program demonstrated the need for convenient recycling solutions.
“iQ Renew is a proud early adopter of the Curby program and we’re pleased to facilitate this innovation on behalf of the City of Newcastle,” Gallagher said.
“Seeing thousands of Curby tagged bags arrive at our Material Recovery Facility is incredibly exciting and shows that our community wants to do more and do better when it comes to recycling.”
Registered participants will receive bright yellow CurbyBags that they can fill with clean, soft plastic packaging before tying them shut, attaching a special CurbyTag, and scanning them through the CurbyApp.
The bags are then placed in the yellow-lid bin for regular fortnightly collection.
This allows them to be separated from other materials and prevents the contamination of other recyclables.
Interested households can register on the CurbyIt website or by downloading the Curby App from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
Maia O’Connor