Recycle right over Christmas

The secret to opening the presents on Christmas morning is planning - make sure you have a pair of scissors, nail clippers or side cutters, allen keys and an assortment of batteries.

“The amount of rubbish we generate generally increases during the Christmas-New Year period, especially on Christmas Day,” Fraser Coast Regional Councillor David Lee said.

“The good news is that a lot of it, including gift-wrapping and the packaging around gifts, can be recycled.

“But, the packing needs to be separated: the twist ties and small plastic catches that hold the toys in the packaging go into the waste bin and the cardboard and wrapping paper go into the recycle bin.

“That’s where the tools come in handy to quickly cut and release the toys for the kids and give adults many hours of fun sorting what’s left.

“Don’t shove everything, including the wrapping paper, back into the box. Place items individually into the recycling bin, and if possible, flatten the boxes so they take up less space in your bin.”

Cr Lee encouraged residents to also look for other ways to recycle such as taking flat batteries to Aldi, Battery World, Office Works or Council’s waste facilities and taking soft plastics such as bread wrappers to collection containers at the shops.

“In the past year residents have done a remarkable job recycling. Council processed 11,000 tonnes of material collected from the kerbside yellow-lid recycling bins,” he said.

“In the past couple of years, the amount of contamination, the wrong items being placed into the recycling bins, has dropped remarkably.

“It’s a bit of an art, but easy enough to get the hang of.  While glass jars and plastic containers can go in your yellow recycling bin, please take the lids off, rinse and put recycling loose into the recycling bin.

“Any unwanted household items that are in reusable condition, can be taken to our waste facilities where it can be recycled or repurposed.”

For more hints and tips on recycling, including an A-Z Recycling Guide, go to https://www.frasercoast.qld.gov.au/recycling