City of Gold Coast
Q. Is Council paying for this?
A. We’re investigating the most appropriate funding model and this will involve seeking support from all levels of government and potential private investors.
Q. How will this work? Will we still put our rubbish in the bin or do we have to take it away ourselves?
A. Kerbside collections won’t change. Your general waste, recycling and green organics bins will still be collected from your street. You will still be able to access our Waste & Recycling Centres for other recyclables and to dispose of items that can’t go in your general waste bin
.Q. Will the ARRC sort waste to remove recyclables that have been put in the general waste bins?
A. No. Studies have found that when this happens, more people put recyclable materials into general waste bins assuming it will be sorted later. The best recycling results are achieved when the user recycles at the point of disposal ie. at home. We will continue providing education and information to the community to help with recycling. We’re also supporting research into strategies for improved recovery behaviour change programs.
Q. What about food organics – why don’t you offer that to reduce landfill?A. We understand the community’s interest in food organics (FO) recycling. The process for this is more involved than for recycling garden waste and we haven’t yet found a service provider who can offer a solution that is cost-effective for our ratepayers. We are continuing to work towards a solution. We are undertaking a trial now of FO recycling in high rise buildings, and we offer a free program Love Food Hate Waste to help residents reduce food waste at home. We also have a commercial FO service for certain hospitality premises and we're investigating the expansion of this service. We're also currently planning other ways we can support residents to increase FO recycling and divert that material from landfill.
Q. We need soft plastics recycling – why don’t you offer that?
A. We agree! We depend on the recycling industry for a solution for soft plastics. Unfortunately, there is no provider able to offer this service to us currently. There is a trial underway in 12 Victorian supermarkets, but none is planned for Queensland due to the lack of recycling facilities. APR Plastics is the only facility in Australia now which can recycle soft plastics. Recycle Smart send small amounts of soft plastics to APR, but they don't have capacity to take on large new areas like ours.We are supporting research into finding a new solution for soft plastics recycling, and developing assessments for plastic circular economy business models to attract industry.We will continue to monitor the industry and encourage our community to reduce their use of soft plastics, particularly single use