Set our containers free for recycling, set our economy free of waste.

Picture this. It’s bin night. All week you’ve been putting aside your drink bottles, cartons and cans diligently for recycling. We place these recyclables inside a bag to carry them out to the bin and drop them in. Job done! Right?

Wrong. By placing our recyclables inside a container such as a bag, we send them to landfill instead of to recycling. This isn’t just creating waste, it’s also creating a wasted opportunity.

Have you ever wondered how many recyclable materials are sent to landfill each year? Globally, 91% of all raw materials are wasted after a single use (Circularity Gap Report,2020). Australia is ramping up its efforts to increase its recycling rate, with 60% of materials recycled in 2018/19 (National Waste Report 2020). And we need your help!

The Containers for Change scheme is helping Queenslanders capture the opportunity of one stream of everyday recyclable materials – drink containers. Around 3.2 billion recyclable drink containers are sold in our state each year, and thanks to the scheme, we now recycle almost two-thirds of these. But we are still losing 1.1 billion recyclable containers to landfill each year. When you think about the value of these containers, we are throwing away the equivalent of $110,000,000! You can help by setting your containers free to be recycled, so that we can work towards becoming a state free from waste.

Good recycling habits require behaviour change. Many containers buried in landfill get there because we throw them into our rubbish bin, rather than the recycling bin. Another common problem is that we don’t recycle our containers loose when we throw them in our recycling bin, we often bag them, causing material contamination that directs them to landfill. By taking the time to sort and dispose of our containers correctly, we can contribute to a healthier planet for ourselves and for future generations.

Why is it essential to recycle effectively? We are running out of resources. If the earth’s entire history was squeezed into one year, humans have existed for only 37 minutes and already used up one third of earth’s natural resources in the last 0.2 seconds (The World Counts, 2021). We need to change our ways.

The Containers for Change scheme makes forming better recycling habits easy for Queenslanders. Once you’ve sorted your drink containers that are approved for recycling, you have two different options to participate in our program. Containers can be exchanged for 10 cents apiece at a refund point or tossed loose in the recycling bin at home. This means not bagged or boxed, just toss them in as they are.

By participating in Containers for Change, we circulate the value through our society as revenue streams, jobs, and recycled products that come back for use again and again. Let’s set ourselves free from wasted effort and set the world free from waste.