Week 4

Recycling

Showers: 19

Dishwasher cycles: 7 (on eco setting)

Washing machine: 9 (on eco setting, using cold water)

Lights on at night: approx. 14

Bins of rubbish: 5 (small bin)

Meat products bought: 0

Bins of recycling: 1/2 (large bin)

This week I bought a recycling container to keep next to the inside bin which will make it easier to sort recyclables from landfill rubbish. We can then transfer the box into the big recycling bin outside. We have been through about 2 full boxes of recycling this week. Everyone is making a big effort to sort our rubbish into organic, recyclable and landfill.

You can put the following things in your recycling bin:

• paper and cardboard
• aluminium and steel cans
• empty aerosol cans
• all hard plastic containers
• glass bottles and jars
• milk and juice cartons
• pizza boxes
• aluminium foil and trays
• rigid household plastic items like kitchen storage containers and plastic toys
• steel pots and pans (no glass lids)

(City of Melbourne, Recycling, 2014)

The commercial waste sent to landfill from 2008-2009 in Victoria was 98,000 tonnes. This is almost half the total waste sent to landfill.
30-40% of this waste was recyclable and should not have gone to landfill.
10-20% of this waste was organic.
40-50% of this waste was low cost, high energy materials ideal for energy generation.
The remainder was not easily recoverable and goes into landfill. (EPA, 2014)

This is the recyclables box.