FAQs

#RecycleRight is a new region-wide campaign asking people to make some simple changes to our recycling routines. This campaign has been developed with our neighbouring Councils and everyone will be recycling the same way across the Northern Rivers.

The main message of the campaign is that all our recyclables need to be very clean so that we can send it ro recycling processors for re-manufacturing. If we do this right we can get the most life out of every product and prevent materials going into landfill.

Previously China accepted recyclables with a relaxed contamination level of around 5% (contamination being incorrect items mixed with materials that can be recycled). This meant that China accepted a large proportion of the world's waste. China introduced its National Sword Policy in January 2018, which enforced a strict contamination limit of 0.5%. This sent the global recycling industry into shock, as much of the world's recycling could not meet this new standard.

We now process the bulk of our recyclables right here in Australia. This is good news for the environment, but our domestic processors require a very clean product to remanufacture. Council's #RecycleRight campaign will help us collect clean and uncontaminated recycling.

We send our recyclables to Australian Recycled Plastics in Narrabri, where they clean the materials using recycled water and cut the product into a flake size (about 10mm). This is then sold to manufacturers (in Australia only) who make decking boards, food trays, bottles, bollards and railings, park furniture and fence posts. 100% of the material we send off is kept in Australia.

The #RecycleRight campaign asks individuals to follow six easy recycling routines. Click here to find a quick guide.

Soft plastics include shopping bags, cling wrap, pasta and biscuit packets, and bread bags.

Lismore City Council can no longer accept soft plastics in our recycling bins, but you can still recycle soft plastics at major supermarkets.

Woolworths and Coles both have REDcycle collection points at the front of their stores.

Soft plastics make up a huge amount of household waste. We encourage all residents to keep recycling soft plastics. Simply fill up a plastic bag and drop it off at your nearest REDcycle collection point when you go shopping.

At the Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre polystyrene is manually fed into a machine that chips and melts the poly, enabling it to be made into small bales. Pallets of these bales are transported to Korea and Malaysia and made into items like picture frames.

Unfortunately, polystyrene breaks up easily and contaminates the rest of our clean recycling when collected in our yellow recycling bins. Please drop-off polystyrene at the Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre on Wyrallah Road or the Brewster Street Drop-off Centre.

The linings in hot beverage cups is a mixture of paper and plastic and makes these items difficult to recycle.  New cups and lids made of plant material are currently being developed and in the future you may be able to place them in your green organics bin but for now they have to go into the red landfill bin.

The best solution and a healthier option is to buy a reusable coffee cup to take to the café. Choose ceramic, glass or stainless steel rather than plastic.

No, we can no longer recycle these items.

There are two reasons for this:

1. We were previously sending small mixed plastics to China to be processed. But here in Australia (where we now recycle all our materials) there is no processor that can recycle mixed plastics.

2. Anything small is unable to be sorted at the Materials Recovery Facility – it falls through gaps in the recycling machinery and can contaminate our recyclables and glass sand.

Please do not place any items smaller than a credit card into your recycling bin including lids, bread tags and straws. We can no longer accept these, even if collected together in an old milk bottle. The rule is simple – if it’s smaller than a credit card, keep it out!

When your recyclables reach the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), they are loaded onto a conveyor where they are manually sorted by staff. Emptying bags and boxes slows down the sorting on the conveyor belt.

When you place loose items into your recycling bin you help keep the system working well and ensure that Council can recycle as much as possible per hour.

Clean cardboard needs to go in your yellow recycling bin. Dirty cardboard like pizza, cake and noodle boxes goes in your green organics bin.