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Seven Wicked Wastes

Fluorescent Lights

Interesting Fact
Energy efficient lighting is an essential component of Australia’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Energy efficient lights, such as fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent globes (CFLs) use around 80% less electricity than incandescent light globes. This is a significant saving, not only for your electricity bill (up to $50/year), but also for the planet.

Why can’t you put it in the bin?
Fluoro lights contain very small quantities of mercury. While these quantities are small, mercury can be toxic to both humans and the environment if not disposed of correctly. It is still OK to put the light globes in your household garbage bin but it is much better for people and the environment to have them safely recycled instead.

Fluoro lights, both tubes and globes, can be recycled to safely capture and recycle the mercury, glass and aluminium; however they can not be recycled through your normal household recycling bin. 

What You Can Do Instead?
The Hunter councils of Cessnock, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Muswellbrook, Newcastle, Port Stephens and Singleton now have recycling boxes for free disposal of your fluoro lights at the end of their life. Contact your council to find out where these boxes are located.

In addition, the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water provides regular household chemical clean out collections where you can also dispose of these lights. Visit http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/households/cleanoutguide.htm/ for information on when the next Clean Out is occurring in your local area.

Important Note
It should be noted that while fluoros contain mercury, the health risk from the mercury is considered to be small. Unless the bulb is broken there is no exposure to mercury and even then, because the exposure is short term, the risk is considered to be low. For more information about appropriate disposal and recycling options, as well as what to do if a fluoro light is broken, visit http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/energyefficiency/lighting/faq-disposal.html  

Batteries

Interesting Fact
No matter where you live, or what you do, you can’t escape batteries. They’re come in all shapes and sizes and can be found in smoke detectors, mobile phones, remote controls and many toys, just to name a few places you’ll find them.

It is estimated that on average, each person will use 18 batteries a year and a household with children will use an astounding 109 batteries each year (source: www.sita.com.au).

Wherever possible, it is better to use rechargeable batteries, as these can be used up to 1000 times, making them very cost effective and a more environmentally friendly option than single use batteries.

Why can’t you put it in the bin?
While safe during use, we need to ensure that all batteries, both single use or rechargeable, are disposed of correctly at the end of their life. This is important because batteries contain metals which can be toxic to humans and the environment.

By recycling batteries at the end of their life, you help to reduce the release of toxic materials and heavy metals which can occur when they are disposed to landfill. Both single use and rechargeable batteries can be recycled.

What You Can Do Instead
The Hunter councils of Cessnock, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Muswellbrook, Newcastle, Port Stephens and Singleton now have recycling boxes for free disposal of your batteries at the end of their life. Contact your council to find out where these boxes are located.

Note: car batteries can not be accepted in these boxes but talk to your local council for alternative options for these.

In addition, the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water provides regular household Chemical Clean Out collections where you can dispose of car batteries. Visit http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/households/cleanoutguide.htm/ for information on when the next Clean Out is occurring in your local area.

Visit www.recyclingnearyou.com.au to find out about other opportunities to recycle your batteries and other ‘wicked wastes’.

Used Motor Oil

Interesting Fact:
Around 500 million litres of lubricating oil are used in Australia each year. That is a huge quantity of a non-renewable resource being used every year.

Why can’t you put it in the bin?
Motor oil is one of those wastes that can easily be recycled into new oil and other oil-based products. By recycling oil you reduce the need to use non-renewable oil reserves.

Used oil is hazardous and toxic to both humans and the environment. Oil spills like the Exxon Valdez have shown the serious harm oil can cause when it gets into waterways. It only takes 1 litre of oil to contaminate 1 million litres of water so if motor oil isn’t stored or disposed of properly, serious environmental harm can result.

What can you do with it instead?
All local councils in the Hunter Region have drop-off points for household quantities of used motor oil. You can dispose of up to 10 litres at a time at these drop-off points.

Contact your local council, or visit their website, to find out the location nearest to you.

Drop off your used motor oil to the annual Chemical Clean Out, which is a free household chemical collection service. To find out when your next cleanout is on visit www.cleanout.com.au

 

Paint

Interesting Fact:
Around 180,000 million litres of paint [that’s 45,000 million 4 litre paint cans] is manufactured in Australia every year and it is estimated that approximately 10-15% (18,000 – 27,000 million litres) of purchased paint remains unused, stored in garages, workshops and businesses.

Why can’t you put it in the bin?
Paint contains chemicals such as solvents and metals that can contaminate groundwater and endanger human health. Additionally, oil based paints are flammable and should never be placed in a household garbage or recycling bin for collection. By correctly disposing of your paint you can play an important role in protecting our environment.

What can you do with it instead?
Very small quantities (less than 200mL) of water based paints can be dried out in the tin and placed in your household garbage bin. Drop off your unused paint to the annual Chemical Clean Out, which is a free household chemical collection service. To find out when your next cleanout is on visit www.cleanout.com.au

Check with your local council for other ways to correctly dispose of paint.

 

Mobile Phones

Interesting Fact:
It is estimated that there are approximately 16 million old mobile phones and accessories stored in people’s homes and offices. That’s approximately 3,200 tonnes of phones.

Why can’t you put it in the bin?
Mobile phones and their accessories contain hazardous materials that can leach into landfill, contaminating the soil and groundwater.

Storing old mobile phones locks up precious resources that could otherwise be recycled into a wide range of products.

Approximately 90% of a mobile phone can be recycled. Did you know that the plastic from the casings can be shredded and recycled into fence posts and pallets?

Just one tonne of old circuit boards yields the same amount of precious metals as mining 110 tonnes of gold and 123 tonnes of silver bearing ore.

By recycling your old phone you are helping to conserve precious resources and prevent environmental degradation.

What can you do with it instead?
There are a lot of ways to recycle your old mobile phones and their accessories:

  • Contact the Mobile Muster hotline on 1300 730 070 for your nearest drop-off point or visit their website at www.mobilemuster.com.au ;
  • Contact you local council to find out where to drop off your old phones; or
  • Pick up a reply paid envelope at Australia Post outlets for FREE postage of your phone to the recycler.

 

Printer cartridges

Interesting Fact:
18 million printer consumables are used in Australia each year, with the majority being thrown in the garbage when they run out of ink.

Why can’t you put it in the bin?
The components of printer cartridges can all be recycled, including any left over inks, so it is a big waste of resources simply to dispose of them to landfill.

Using recycled materials uses less energy and water than manufacturing these materials from scratch and saves on greenhouse gas emissions too.

What can you do with it instead?
There are a lot of ways to reuse or recycle your printer cartridges

Cartridges 4 Planet Ark offers a nationwide collection service. This service takes ink cartridges from both laser and inkjet printers as well as faxes, toners from photocopiers and drum units. To find out where to drop off you printer cartridges:

  • You might also consider reusing your printer cartridge by either getting your cartridges refilled or refilling them yourself. Just check your printer warranty to be sure you don’t void it by doing this.

Plastic Bags

Interesting Fact
In 2007 Australians used close to four billion plastic bags; that's over 10 million new bags being used every day. This is down from six billion in 2002, which is an excellent achievement, but shows we still have a very long way to go to reduce our use of these bags.
 
Why Shouldn’t You Put them in Your Bin
Plastic bags are a particular problem for our environment because:

  • they are extremely mobile due to their light weight;
  • easily picked up by the wind to become litter in far away places;
  • create visual pollution; and
  • take many years to break down in landfill.

 

What Can You Do With Them Instead?
Luckily there are lots of things we can all do to reduce our use and the effects of plastic bags.

  • Refuse – if you are only buying a few items, choose to carry them instead of accepting a plastic bag or take alternative bags, such as green bags, string bags etc, to use instead. Keep these in a handy spot at home so you can grab them on your way out, or leave them in the boot of your car. Don’t forget to carry with you a small reusable bag for incidental purchases.
  • Reuse – Take your plastic bags with you to be used again or you could reuse them around your home. Use them instead of buying plastic bags for your rubbish bin, to clean up dog poo or as storage to name a few ideas.
  • Recycle – Plastic bags can’t be recycled in your household recycling bin however, most major supermarkets have plastic bag recycling boxes at their store front. You can also place your old 'green bags' in these bins for recycling too. Check out http://www.recyclingnearyou.com.au/ to see if your local shop is included.
  • Dispose –If you really can’t reuse or recycle them, make sure they are disposed properly by placing them in your household garbage bin.

A lot of people and shops have already taken steps to reduce or stop the use of plastic bags. Why not take some action this week to join them?

 

 

7 Wicked Wastes

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