Bin tagging increases GREAT Sorts in Canning

The City of Canning’s eight-week bin tagging waste education program was recently completed with data revealing a significant improvement in residents recycling habits across the 11 selected areas in Canning.

The ninth round of the City’s bin tagging program targeted 2179 homes in randomly chosen areas of East Cannington, Shelley, Riverton, Parkwood, Canning Vale, Bentley, St James, Queens Park, Wilson, Lynwood, and Willetton.

Over the eight-week period, bins in these areas were assessed fortnightly, with tags placed on the bins to help inform residents of how to dispose of their waste correctly.

At the end of the program data revealed that 73% of recycling bins received a happy tag, which was a significant improvement from 57% at the start. Happy tags are placed on recycling bins with very low contamination or no contamination.

As with previous rounds, the most common contaminant in recycling bins were soft plastics, which included crisp bags, lolly wrappers, bread bags, bubble wrap and biscuit packaging.

At the beginning of this round 45.5% of households where mistakenly putting soft plastics in the yellow bin, this decreased to 38.9% of households at the end of the round.

Positively, residents learned to stop bagging their recyclables with only 5.8% of bins found with bagged recyclables at the end of the program.

Mayor Patrick Hall said he was pleased with the impact the bin tagging program has had on residents recycling behaviours.

“Overall, the program has had a positive impact on residents recycling behaviours.

“At the end of the program one in four recycling bins had no contamination at all, which is a fantastic result.

“Bin tagging plays an important part of the City’s efforts to educate residents on correct recycling behaviours, as correct recycling in our bins means a better outcome for the environment and lower fees for the City,” Mayor Hall said.

Only five materials belong in the recycling bin, they are paper, cardboard, glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles and containers, and aluminium and steel cans. The materials must be rinsed, placed loose in the bin with the lids off, for more information visit the Recycling page.

Electronic waste and hazardous household waste such as batteries, aerosols, paint, weed killers and engine oil cannot be disposed of in kerbside bins and must be disposed of at a drop off point such as the City’s Resource Recovery and Waste Transfer Station in Canning Vale.

This project was supported by the Government of Western Australia and administered by the Waste Authority. The WA Local Government Association manages the WasteSorted Bin Tagging Program and works with Local Governments to deliver the project outcomes.

For waste related questions, contact the City at 1300 422 664 and ask to talk with the Strategic Waste Team or email waste@canning.wa.gov.au.