Recycling the TerraCycle way
Everything collected through the Zero Waste Box system is sorted and processed into raw materials that can be reused instead of being sent to landfill. Read below to learn how different types of materials are recycled.
- PLASTICS: separated by number, melted down, and turned into pellets that can be moulded and extruded to produce new products.
- METALS: separated by type and smelted into ingots for reuse.
- GLASS: cleaned and sorted by colour for processing. It is then crushed and melted to be used in new glass products.
- ORGANICS: composted or used in industrial and commercial fertilisers.
- FIBRES: hydropulped to separate out wax or plastic coatings. The separated fibre will be recycled into new paper products, or composted if recycling is not possible. Any resulting plastics will be recycled into plastic polymers.
- FABRICS: sorted by type and are recycled, upcycled, or reused as appropriate. Textiles of mixed fibers are converted to energy. Natural fiber textiles (cotton) are turned into a “shoddy” or insulation. Synthetic fiber textiles (polyester) are pelletized and made into new plastic products.
- ELECTRONICS: also known as e-waste, these are mechanically and manually separated into metals and plastics. Salvageable materials are refurbished and reused. All data is wiped, but we advise restoring your device to factory settings before sending it in.
- CIGARETTES: shredded and separated into plastics, papers, and organics.
TerraCycle Australia Zero Waste Boxes are also proudly Made in Australia and are FSC certified to ensure the cardboard is sustainably sourced.
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How the ‘bag for good’ became the ‘bag for bad’
It’s all very well for corporate Australia to sprout how good they are and suggest that their customers are equally responsible, but unless this is genuine and properly conducted it can be anything but helpful and good for nature. These bags were found on the footpath in front of a house whose family had decided that in spite of the Woolworths motto Bags For Good, these bags should be consigned to landfill and be bags for bad. Likewise the bags from Pet Stock, maybe used once, were also destined for landfill if it hadn’t been for our intrepid waste not-conscious member ‘rescuing’ them – and by extension saving the earth from having to deal with yet more plastic being thoughtlessly tossed out.
This is a good reason to scrap the bulk waste system that seems to encourage bad behaviour on the part of good people who can’t seem to connect that the cleaning up of their suburban home has detrimental consequences on their earthly home. A complete contradiction to the message printed on the bag and with which they supposedly agree. We say put them back into circulation at the Woolworths store or Pet Stock store from which they came – or a short trip to a LifeLine or Salvos or other charity store. But for these lovely well intentioned people, it seems to be a step too far and too difficult.
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When stickers become unstuck, nature is expected to absorb yet another product of the COVID-19 health effort.
These stickers had been firmly adhered to a bus stop seat in Lawson Road, Macquarie Hills. For months they served their purpose, although the stop rarely has to cope with more than one or two waiting bus passengers at a time. Now the stickyness that has kept them adhered to the seat has given up to see them become dislodged with one on the footpath, the other in the gutter. It’s not hard to imagine where they will end up next if not retrieved – in the local Munibung Creek to be washed into Winding Creek to end up in Lake Macquarie and quite possibly the Pacific Ocean.
Just as a person from Transport for NSW was assigned the job of placing these stickers on hundreds of bus seats across the Newcastle-Lake Macquarie bus network, so a person needs to be assigned to see that they are removed before they become another part of the ecological impact, outlasting the pandemic for hundreds of years – adding to existing huge quantities of marine pollution. These two stickers are but a very tiny example of the millions of tonnes of products now destined for landfill unless we get a grip on this – see below .
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For the last couple of years, virtually every news feed or broadcast has included images of mask-clad people or health workers suited up as protection from Covid-19. While the images might be ephemeral, those masks and personal protective equipment (PPE), along with used test kits and discarded vaccine syringes, are very real. They eventually have to be disposed of and that is causing a problem, in Australia and across Asia, contributing substantially to the cost that our response to the Covid has already generated. Read the full story by JJ Rose published by the Lowy Institute at the link below.
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The lowest form of good earth ethics is recycling,
but in many instances, it’s the best we’ve got right now. The following are items and drop off centres that are free to the community. There is no ‘waste’ in nature and there is no ‘away’ so these words don’t appear in the following descriptions …
Batteries – Lake Mac libraries, OfficeWorks (household); Bunnings (power tool)
Bottles, cans, cardboard and paper – Yellow topped recycling bin
Bricks and concrete – Concrush at Teralba
Computers and tablets and other electronic equipment including televisions and CD / DVD / VCR players and recorders, portable sound systems – Awaba Resource Centre
Dental care, including toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes – fill a spare box then post to TerraCycle, 44-54 Botany Rd, Alexandria, Sydney, NSW 2015
Food scraps and green garden / yard excess – Green topped bin
Kitchen appliances and other electrical items including white goods such as refrigerators, kettles, toasters, washing machines, with an electrical cord; also power tools both corded and portable battery powered – Awaba Resource Centre
Light globes and tubes – Lake Mac libraries
Pens and writing instruments – OfficeWorks
Plastic – soft single use types – Coles and Woolworths stores
Printer cartridges – ink and toner – OfficeWorks
Razors / Shaving blades – fill a spare box then post to TerraCycle, 44-54 Botany Rd, Alexandria NSW 2015
Smartphones and cable and other telecommunications equipment – Lake Mac libraries, OfficeWorks
Sports shoes – Rebel Sports Stores (picture above)
Toys (plastic) – Big W
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Trending, but out of step with Circular Economy principles
1. PEOPLE WHO ACCEPT plastic bags, cutlery and plastic carry trays for their plastic and paper containers of takeaway food and drink, and then cram the whole lot in a bin after eating from it for ten minutes, are in denial if they think this can go on forever – without consequences.
2. IT SEEMS IRONIC, that the more labour saving gadgetry we invent / work hard to acquire, they fail to deliver the benefits of less work and more leisure time. What was one the expected result of mechanisation and labour-saving devices, has left us chasing the latest model of products that have obsolescence built into them.. What has eventuated is the paradox where we made doing stuff easier and faster, and then just developed ever-cascading standards of normalised consumption expectations and more industries to cater for them – leading to just as much work to do as ever, to pay for their upkeep and keep up with the Jones.
3. ECONOMIC ACTIVITY is fatally flawed as the measure of human success and happiness. Not over-consuming is simply the polite thing to do on a planet of finite resources. There are other measures such as health and well-being with an example being the New Zealand Living Standards Framework – see above image. Therefore one-planet-living has become a trend rather than an exception practiced by a fringe group. Greek philosopher Epicurus taught three things that would fit nicely within this new economy, all of them essential for a happy life: friendship, freedom and time for contemplation.
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At long last, a ban on single use soft and hard plastics
The NSW Parliament’s recent passing of the Plastic Reduction and Circular Economy Act 2021 (NSW), makes the State the last Australian jurisdiction to implement a ban against single-use plastic bags. This ban will come into effect on 1 June 2022.
Plastic bags are one of the most lethal plastics for ocean wildlife, entangling seabirds and choking turtles which mistake them for jellyfish.
Going further, from 1st November 2022, the following single-use plastics will also be banned: Cutlery, straws, drink stirrers, polystyrene food and drink containers, cotton buds, microbeads and disposable plates and bowls.
“Despite all its challenges, 2021 has become a historic year in the campaign against fossil-fuel plastic,” said Shane Cucow, Plastics Campaign Manager, Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS). The ban couldn’t come soon enough: “Every day we wait, we lose more animals to the scourge of plastic pollution,” added Mr Cucow.- 16 November 2021.
MMM … Issue 27, March 2022
