If you have a kerbside recycling bin service, it makes recycling at home easy.
When you recycle, you are conserving resources and diverting waste from our landfill. You reduce environmental pollution and conserve natural resources like water, natural minerals, and timber.
However, it’s the small mistakes that can make this great effort literally go to waste due to contamination. Contamination is putting items in the bin that aren’t accepted for recycling, or products that haven’t been cleaned out properly. Disposing of recyclables is free (up to a 240L wheelie bin) for Gladstone Region residents, so separating your recyclables from other rubbish will save you considerable money and time at the tip or transfer station.
It’s important to put the correct items in the bin to ensure everything gets recycled.
(PDF, 2MB)
A few general tips for better recycling
- Find out what recycling options are available near you for recycling items like e-waste, batteries, and paint by visiting the Recycling Near You website.
- You can put drink containers in your recycling bin at home or collect your 10-cent refund on eligible containers.
- Do not put your recyclables into the recycling bin in a plastic bag – keep it loose.
- Clean out your recycling items to make sure they are accepted for recycling—a quick rinse or a scrape out of leftover food can make all the difference.
- Keep grass clippings, garden waste, food and liquid out of your recycling bin, as they can ruin items and make them unsuitable for recycling.
- Do not put soft, scrunchable plastics in the recycling bin.
- Flatten boxes before recycling them to make more space.
- Remember only plastics numbered 1, 2, 4 and 5 can be recycled.
The recyclables that you place in your yellow bin are collected fortnightly by our Recycling trucks and brought to the recovery holding facility at the Benaraby Landfill.
From there, the material is loaded and transferred to the MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) - a state-of-the-art facility located at Nambour on the Sunshine Coast.
This MRF is currently utilised by all the CQ Councils and has the capacity to process over 60,000 tonnes of material a year.
It’s easier than ever to understand your recycling with the new Recycle Mate App.
Download the app on your phone for free through the App Store or Google Play.
You can also find specialised recycling services in our region using the Recycle Mate.