[REQUEST] someone involved high-up in the Australian recycling chain.

My 5 questions;

1) Where does my stuff go when I put my recycling bin out? Does it get recycled into goods here in Australia, or shipped overseas?

2) if shipped overseas, does the recycled raw material end up back in Australia?

3) What percentage of recyclable material that goes in recycle bins is actually recycled? How much ends up in land-fill anyway?

4) is there really such this as a contaminated load? That is, the truck has a pile of green waste or household garbage in it so the whole lot is disposed of in genera rubbish?

5) who is making all the money from me giving them my recyclable stuff for free? Why don't I get a cash payment for every load of recycling I give to the recyclers?

Comments: 372 • Responses: 4  • Date: 

Fair_Dinkum_Scale425 karma

Lazy journalism Tracey Grimshaw, just lazy.....

sausagefingerscunt127 karma

I wish they would just run some more quality stories about Hooning drivers.

zippy_long_stockings32 karma

My preference is how I could save money on my weekly grocery shop. By buying less.

dandyl7827 karma

Less smashed avocadoes at least, you goddam entitled millenial

In our day, we had to smash our own avocadoes, and it took a good year or two of saving before we could buy our houses outright

Farkdeddit5 karma

Can't even get any fucking avos at my local Coles at the moment.

Wanted to adult and make big people finger food on the weekend, but all these yuppy cafes get stock priority due to a "shortage during seasonal turnover", I was told.

Enjoy never being able to buy a house, assholes!!!

I-think-Im-funny4 karma

Stick to party pies.

inane_musings268 karma

What a shame. My dad was one of Victoria's authorities on recycling, among many achievements he pioneered the Melbourne Regional Landfill which is a world class facility in Ravenhall. I recently toured the facility thanks to his colleagues who explained what an environmentally sustainable (and productive) facility MRL is thanks to my dad. A bronze plaque is in place there in his memory, cancer took him 18 months ago. He would have loved to have been a part of a Reddit AMA. Thanks for your interest in my dad's industry, made me smile.

I-think-Im-funny7 karma

You Dad would have been perfect for this. Exactly who we needed.

rawdeal351234 karma

I used to work at a glass crushing plant

Broken bottles would come in from VISY and id crush it into sand

Its still sparkles but if you crush it enough , it cant really cut you

From there it goes into fill for under some roads and ashphalt

So.. I guess that answers some of it

I-think-Im-funny115 karma

That sounds like an extremely satisfying job. Could you see the glass getting crushed, or was it all behind steel frames?

CrockpotTuna1 karma

OP, do you have to separate everything in different bins?

I-think-Im-funny2 karma

One bin for household rubbish, one bin for recyclables. We don't need to seperate glass from metal from paper.