This article provided by the ACT NoWaste Education Team as a followup to the GCC public meeting 14/10/2020.
Bulky Waste Collections
Bulky waste collections started in Gungahlin and Tuggeranong on 15 July 2020 for ALL households. The existing service for concession card holders is still available in all ACT suburbs.
Book your FREE collection to save yourself a trip to the tip.
If you live in a multi-unit development with a shared waste enclosure, contact your body corporate or managing agent to make a booking and identify a suitable location for placement of the goods for collection.
Households receive a single collection per year of up to two cubic metres for items including damaged furniture and worn out household appliances.
Bulky waste limit is 2 cubic metres
Food Waste
Food waste makes up over 1/3 of what goes in our red bins, and approximately 26,000 tonnes of household food waste goes to the ACT landfill each year.
You’d be forgiven for thinking ‘I’ve got this covered with my chickens and compost bin’ but think again…
The Love Food Hate Waste campaign is all about eating the food that was grown, transported, stored and sold for consumption. It’s about eating food before it goes bad! By rethinking the food we throw away, Canberra households can save up to $3,800 every year off their food bills – that’s up to $73 each week.
Love Food Hate Waste is a part of the ACT’s response to help halving Australia’s food waste by 2030 and aims to help reduce food waste at home with inspiring ideas, recipes, facts and resources to ensure that edible food is not thrown away.
Reducing food waste is as simple as making a meal plan, fine-tuning and sticking to a shopping list, storing food well and using your leftovers. There are webinars and events where you can learn more: Click here to find upcoming webinars and events. https://www.canberraenvironment.org/workshops/
Now that is a recipe for good!
Are you Recycling Right?
Watch the short videos of 6 key tips (https://www.cityservices.act.gov.au/recyclopaedia/recycle-right) which highlight recent changes to getting Recycling Right and find out about Canberra’s Recycling Story. https://www.cityservices.act.gov.au/recyclopaedia/canberras-recycling-story
Canberra’s Recycling Story
Waste is a local problem in a global context.
How we avoid, re-use, recycle and dispose of waste is complex and multi-faceted. After reducing and reusing, recycling is the third best option when it comes to effective waste management. It is vital to the development of a circular economy that waste is viewed as a valuable resource to be used again, helping to avoid the use of natural resources and keeping materials out of landfill.
In Canberra we are lucky enough to have established relationships in local markets for much of the recycling collected and sorted at our Materials Recovery Facility, but that is just the part of the solution when it comes to valuing the materials that we rely on every day.
Do you know what is happens to your old glass bottles and jars?
A new collaboration between Icon Water, the ACT Government and Re-Group will turn recycled glass products into sand for local infrastructure projects.
It’s only waste, if you waste it!
ACT NoWaste Education Team
Good article, sometimes we just didn’t know all these things.