WATERLOO: The thousands of residents who live in the Waterloo public housing estate have been without a recycling service for a number of years. The City of Sydney provides a general waste service (red lid bin), with collections twice a week, but no recycling service.
This is an issue of concern for residents.
“The topic of recycling comes up frequently in conversations on the estate and at meetings of the Waterloo Neighbourhood Advisory Board,” said Catherine, who resides in one of the high-rise buildings. “People want to know why we can’t have recycling.”
Heather, who lives in a three-storey walk-up, said, “I frequently read about recycling in Sydney City News, but I can’t recycle my own waste.”
Another three-storey walk-up resident, Norrie, has asked in various public forums about the provision of recycling services, but says she has not received a straight reply. Eventually she contacted Ron Hoenig, state member for Heffron. In a letter dated July 23, Mr Hoenig indicated to Norrie that he had asked the Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) whether consideration would be given to restoring services on the estate, and that he would contact her again when he received a response to his enquiries. Norrie has received no further communication.
Owners of multi-unit dwellings (strata in the case of privately-owned dwellings) engage either the local council or a private company to provide waste and recycling services.
A City of Sydney spokesperson told the SSH, “The Land and Housing Corporation pays an annual council domestic waste charge for all bins provided and waste collected.
“Under agreement with LAHC, the City does not provide a dedicated recycling service to the estate. The service was removed because high levels of contamination meant the recyclable material was being rejected and diverted to landfill.”
The rejection of loads by materials recovery facilities places extra costs on service providers and therefore ratepayers, due to higher disposal fees and increased truck movements.
“The other question about recycling that comes up on the estate is, even if the council were to provide recycling, would it actually be recycled,” says Catherine.
The City of Sydney has confirmed to the SSH that all material it collects for recycling is indeed recycled. Residents may be surprised to learn that regarding the waste collected from the estate, “recyclable material, such as glass, paper, aluminium and steel, is removed from the general waste and processed for recycling”.
However, residents’ concerns are not totally misplaced. There are multiple systemic issues facing recycling in NSW.
The NSW government has set a target for 70 per cent of household waste to be recycled in 2020/2021, yet in 2017/2018 the figure was just 42 per cent. According to data collated by the NSW government, approximately 20 per cent of materials collected are not recycled due to contamination. Some glass is being stockpiled because most sorting facilities have not yet invested in separating different coloured glass, there is little demand for the cloudy brown product that results if colours aren’t separated, and the use of sand from glass in road base is only just reaching commercialisation. China and other Asian countries have rejected Australia’s mixed plastic wastes, precipitating a plastic waste crisis. More packaging, multiple packaging types and packaging consisting of multiple materials has increased the complexity of recycling for households. And waste generation in our consumer society is rising rapidly. According to Sydney University, Australia is producing waste at six times our population growth. As a whole, Australia’s recycling facilities are not currently equipped to cope with these rising challenges.
In response, the NSW Local Government Association launched its “Save Our Recycling” campaign, calling upon the NSW government to direct more funding and resources towards the planning and delivery of recycling and community education. The NSW government and other state and federal governments are starting to respond, investing in new infrastructure and exploring new options to improve collection and processing of recyclables.
Jenni Downes, Research Fellow at BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash University, specialises in waste and recycling systems and behaviours. She contends that there are particular opportunities for improvement in recycling systems for multi-unit dwellings.
“Across Australia we mostly have co-mingled recyclables collection for households, due to the lower collection costs and other efficiencies associated with fewer trucks. But you get much lower quality than if the streams are separated. Glass breaks and contaminates other things. Food and drink residues contaminate the paper and cardboard. Ideally, we at least need to separate out the glass and/or paper streams, which is being explored in various local councils around Australia,” says Jenni.
While the prospect of five or six different bins or crates poses a challenge for houses, this is not always so for multi-unit dwellings. “Some proactive strata are already providing separated recyclables collections. A secure bin for beverage containers, which a cleaner or other worker can empty and then take the contents to a Return and Earn return point, is also proving to be successful,” she says.
The SSH asked the City of Sydney what would need to happen for the City to reconsider the provision of recycling services to the Waterloo estate. A spokesperson replied, “The City encourages resource recovery through many means, including recycling. The City would reconsider the provision of recycling services and would welcome a request from LAHC if they were able to guarantee minimal levels of contamination.”
Norrie asks, “Has the whole estate been penalised for the behaviour of a few? How long until LAHC and the City of Sydney are willing to try again? What message is this policy sending to residents?”
The SSH has asked the City of Sydney whether the previous contamination was uniform across the estate or due to specific buildings, and for more information about the removal of recyclables from the general waste stream. We will post their reply, and our future communications with LAHC, on our website.
“We want the opportunity to be responsible citizens, not forced to be rubbish ones,” says Norrie.
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Further reading:
https://www.lgnsw.org.au/news/publication/save-our-recycling
https://theconversation.com/how-recycling-is-actually-sorted-and-why-australia-is-quite-bad-at-it-121120
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SSH questions to the City of Sydney, October 25, 2019
What waste and recycling services does the City of Sydney provide to the Waterloo Estate, and how do these services vary across the Estate?
Under what arrangements with the Land and Housing Corporation are these services provided?
I understand that recycling services were discontinued to the high rise buildings in the Estate a few years ago. Why were these services discontinued? Was it a City of Sydney decision to do so, or a LAHC decision?
Would the City of Sydney reconsider the provision of recycling services to the high rises? What would need to happen for this to be reconsidered?
The City of Sydney website (https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/live/waste-and-recycling/recycling) states the following about recycling collection:
“All materials collected are sent to a specialist recycling facility where materials are sorted for recycling. For example, paper and cardboard, glass, metals, and different types of plastics. From here, these items are reprocessed into raw materials and used to produce new products.”
There has been a lot of media coverage the last few years about the recycling crisis in NSW and Australia. Can the City of Sydney confirm that the materials collected for recycling are indeed ultimately recycled?
SSH questions to the City of Sydney, October 25, 2019
What waste and recycling services does the City of Sydney provide to the Waterloo Estate, and how do these services vary across the Estate?
Under what arrangements with the Land and Housing Corporation are these services provided?
I understand that recycling services were discontinued to the high rise buildings in the Estate a few years ago. Why were these services discontinued? Was it a City of Sydney decision to do so, or a LAHC decision?
Would the City of Sydney reconsider the provision of recycling services to the high rises? What would need to happen for this to be reconsidered?
The City of Sydney website (https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/live/waste-and-recycling/recycling) states the following about recycling collection:
“All materials collected are sent to a specialist recycling facility where materials are sorted for recycling. For example, paper and cardboard, glass, metals, and different types of plastics. From here, these items are reprocessed into raw materials and used to produce new products.”
There has been a lot of media coverage the last few years about the recycling crisis in NSW and Australia. Can the City of Sydney confirm that the materials collected for recycling are indeed ultimately recycled?
Response from City of Sydney spokesperson, October 30, 2019
The City of Sydney provides a general waste (red lid bin) collection service to the Waterloo Public Housing Estate, with pickups from a number of locations every Tuesday and Friday.
Recyclable material, such as glass, paper, aluminium and steel, is removed from the general waste and processed for recycling.
The Land and Housing Corporation pays an annual council domestic waste charge for all bins provided and waste collected.
Under agreement with the LAHC, the City does not provide a dedicated recycling service to the estate. The service was removed because high levels of contamination meant the recyclable material was being rejected and diverted to landfill.
The City encourages resource recovery through many means, including recycling. The City would reconsider the provision of recycling services and would welcome a request from LAHC if they were able to guarantee minimal levels of contamination.
The City confirms that all material it collects for recycling is recycled.
SSH follow-up questions, October 31, 2019
Concerning the removal of recyclables from the general waste stream:
How are the recyclables removed, at what stage of the waste collection/disposal process, and by whom?
What is the recovery rate of recyclables like for this method?
Does LAHC pay an additional fee for this removal to occur?
Concerning the withdrawal of the recycling service due to contamination:
Was the contamination uniform across the estate, or was it due to specific buildings?
When was the recycling service actually withdrawn?
Response from City of Sydney spokesperson, November 8, 2019
The City takes general waste (red lid bins) to a processing facility where some materials are removed for recycling.
This process is expensive and inefficient, which is why we strongly encourage recyclables to be placed in yellow lid bins to maximise recycling, keep waste charges down and reduce waste going to landfill.
Recycling (yellow lid bins) was trialled across the Waterloo Estate in 2017. An audit showed high levels of contamination in yellow lid bins, meaning they could not be sent for recycling. These communal recycling bins were removed in October 2017.
Despite the removal of the communal bins, there is still a number of recycling bins used by individual tenants for their own recycling, and these have little or no contamination.
We encourage any resident who wants to recycle to request a recycling bin online, visit a customer service centre or call our customer service team on 9265 9333.
The City’s recyclables processor is Visy Recycling. Visy provides a fully automated mechanical process that sorts around 14,000 tonnes of recyclables each year.
