Set your containers free
Q. I don’t have a recycling bin at home. What should I do with my empties?
A. If you live in a region that doesn’t have kerbside recycling, you can still do something good for the environment (and get a bit of extra cash in your back pocket) by returning your containers to one of our refund points – we have over 300+ in Queensland. Find one near you here.
Q. What happens if I bag my containers and put them in my recycling bin at home?
A. Recyclable items, such as containers need to be placed loose in your recycling bin. If they’re not recycled loose, the material recovery facility handling the load will send the bag to landfill due to uncertainty around its contents, the associated risk of load contamination and safety of the workers at the facility.
Q. What happens to containers when they are placed correctly into the recycling bin?
A. A recycling truck contracted by your local council will come and collect the contents of your recycling bin, which then go to a material recovery facility where the containers are sorted into their material types. These materials are then processed, sold at auction and turned into new materials and products again and again, forming part of the circular economy.
Q. What happens to containers when they are placed in the rubbish bin?
They go to landfill, and that’s a real waste.
Q. Why is landfill so bad?
A. Plastic containers in landfill don’t break down easily with some material types taking hundreds of years to decompose. Landfill also generates greenhouse gases that cause problems in our environment. Recycling your containers means they can be recycled and manufactured into new products, creating an environmentally friendly circle.
Q. Why does returning containers at a refund point or putting containers in the recycling bin enable them to come back again?
A. Recycling your containers enables them to be used again by manufacturing them into a wide range of products such as road base, hard hats, airplane parts or new beverage containers. The materials from the containers go through a process that enables them to be used in new materials and products that can be purchased and reused.
Q. What do you mean by ‘set your containers free’?
A. Containers need to be recycled loose, which is why we’re asking Queenslanders to ‘set them free’ in their recycling bin, if they can’t get to a refund point. If you bag your containers before recycling, they’ll end up in landfill and that’d be a real waste.
Q. Why is Containers for Change supporting eligible containers into the kerbside recycling bins?
A. Containers that are recycled through your recycling bin are taken to a material recovery facility where they are sorted and sent to approved recyclers. These containers contribute to volume returned through the Containers for Change scheme and with an ambitious target of 85% of all beverage containers sold to be returned through the scheme, every container counts.