The best way to prevent recyclable materials from ending up in landfill is to make them valuable. Separating them by type and avoiding contamination by other materials or food residue means they'll be able to be used to make new products.

Sorting waste at home

The easiest way to recycle is to sort your waste into different streams at home. Then you can just grab the containers when they are full and take them to the RRR centre (where the bins are) - already pre-sorted!

Based on the containers for different types of waste at the RRR, we recommend that you sort your rubbish into the following categories.

1. 10c refundable drink containers (check the label for the 10c logo), plastic milk containers and glass bottles and jars.

2. Aluminium foil - scrunch it into balls bigger than a table tennis ball. No coffee pods!

3. Soft plastics e.g. bread bags, food bags, bubble wrap, plastic post bags (here's the full list), but not trays e.g. the clear plastic trays biscuits sit in.

4. Batteries and light bulbs

5. Cardboard, paper, tetrapaks, tins, rigid plastics labeled from 1-6, but not polystyrene meat trays,

6. Compostable products - food scraps, paper and cardboard that has grease or oil

7. Landfill

Some recyclable/reusable products that you will encounter less frequently should also be separated as we have separate recycling streams for them:

1. Metals - steel, iron, copper and aluminium

2. e-Waste (IT equipment, mobile phones and printer cartridges)

3. Toys

What happens after you leave your recycling at the RRR?

The containers in the mail room and those in the bins area other than the large yellow-lidded skips are emptied by the RRR committee volunteers.

You can help out by taking some of the collected recycling with you on your errand runs.

Here's a list of what you can take with you.