Environmentally Sustainable Actions

A Recycling Directory has been prepared by Mawson Lakes Environment Watch especially for Mawson Lakes residents and provides details of the appropriate ways to responsibly dispose of waste and unwanted materials. Recyclable material makes up almost 80% of total household waste in Australia and the average Australian produces over 1 tonne of rubbish each year. Recycling is important for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the materials needed to produce new goods and reducing the amount of land required for landfill waste disposal.

To become a best practice recycler you should ask yourself the question ‘is there an alternative to sending this waste to landfill?’ The Recycling Directory is designed to help you answer that question.

The following is an extract:

Glass bottles and jars

Glass made from recycled glass uses 30% less energy than glass made from raw materials.

Recycling a glass jar saves enough energy to light a bulb for 4 hours.

Recycling a case of West End bottles saves 7.5kgs of CO2e, or the equivalent of 17 full wheelie bins.
 
A refillable glass bottle used over and over requires about 10% as much energy per use as an aluminium can that is recycled. This includes cleaning, sterilizing, relabelling and transporting the glass bottle. This equates to less than 1% of the energy required to manufacture an aluminium can from raw materials.

Go to: Pooraka Bottle & Can Recycling, 10-12 Ween Road, Pooraka to claim the container deposit on beer bottles. Or use the Council Yellow Top recycling bin. Broken glass must go in the general waste bin.

To read the complete Recycling Directory click here

Click here to view an Index of Sustainability websites.