Recycle Right

Did you know that City of Parramatta households recycled more than 12,000 tonnes of material through their kerbside recycling bins in 2018-19?  That’s the good news, the bad news is that when we go through what has been placed in these bins, 4 out of 5 recycling bins have material in there that shouldn’t be. This ranged from a few small items, to almost a quarter of the bin being non-recyclable.  

The information below has been developed to help you recycle right at home and keep our recycling bins free from items that could harm our recycling systems.  

Give these items a second life by putting them in the recycling bin.

• Empty rigid plastic bottles and containers
• Clean paper and cardboard
• Empty food cans, aerosols, and aluminium cans
• Scrunched up aluminium foil
• Empty glass bottles and jars with their lids placed in the recycling bin separately.

Keep your recycling in good shape by keeping these items out of your recycling bin.  

• Bagged material in any type of plastic bag
• Soft plastic packaging such plastic bags, bread and frozen food bags.
• Polystyrene packaging
• Plastic toys
• Metal pots and pans
• Batteries and electrical wastes (Council offers a separate collection for these items)
• Clothing and footwear
• Nappies

These items contaminate recycling and cause damage to waste trucks or recycling plants. 

The Plastics Identification Code 

When many people see the triangle stamped on plastic products they assume that means it can go in your recycling bin, unfortunately that’s not the case.  This is actually a Plastics Identification code used to identify the type of resin used. These codes do not indicate whether or not items can go in your yellow lid bin.  To find our what can and can’t go in your recycling bin, check our A-Z Recycling Guide.