A soft plastic recycling program has been a big hit in its first month.
Wyndham LitterWatch joined Wyndham council and other community groups late last month in a pilot project to encourage residents and businesses to recycle soft plastics via special bins set up at community centres.
Wyndham LitterWatch’s Harry van Moorst said the aim of the program was to get soft plastics out of normal recycling bins.
“The response has been considerably more positive than we’d expected,” Mr van Moorst said.
“We find ourselves emptying the bins once a week.”
The types of soft plastics that can be recycled in the red bins include bread bags, bubble wrap, netting bags, food packaging, plastic shopping bags, and cereal box plastics.
Glass, paper, cardboard, solid plastic containers, tin cans and plastic bottles go in regular recycling bins.
Mr van Moorst said the soft plastics collected from the red bins would be taken to Ballarat company Replas, which recycles the waste and reuses the leftover matter to make plastic playground structures and outdoor furniture.
Wyndham council’s waste and litter education officer Evan Lockhart said 2000 recycled plastic shopping bags were all it took to create a park bench.
Red soft plastic recycling bins are located at the Tarneit, Point Cook and Wyndham Vale community legal centres and the Wyndham Eco-Living Centre.
