Bin tagging returns to help residents get recycling right

Bin tagging will return to the City of Canning on 9 February, with the aim of educating residents on how to correctly sort their waste and improve recycling behaviours.

The eight-week program will include around 2400 homes in Canning in 12 zones across Queens Park, St James, Wilson, Ferndale, Parkwood, Lynwood, Willetton, Canning Vale, Riverton and Shelley.

Each fortnight waste education officers will look inside kerbside bins, in the selected areas, and provide feedback in the form of a happy or sad face tag, to help educate residents on using their bins correctly.

In a first for the City, during this round of bin tagging, one zone will be selected to have bin stickers placed on their recycling bins, in place of the bin tags.

The stickers will be put on the bins at the beginning of the program to highlight what does and doesn’t belong in each bin. Each fortnight the bins will be inspected and the results recorded, to measure the change in waste sorting.

The purpose of this trial is to compare the behaviour change in those bins with stickers as opposed to bin tags, to help inform future waste education projects.

City of Canning Mayor Patrick Hall said the program aims to educate, engage and enforce positive waste sorting habits.

“Helping residents understand how to correctly sort their waste plays a crucial role in improving recycling outcomes. When recycling is done right, it boosts resource recovery and delivers benefits for both the City and our community.

“At the start of the last round of bin tagging 54% of bins received a happy tag, and this increased to 81% by the end of the eight-week program. This was an excellent result, and we’re hoping to build on this success in the next round.

“Happy tags are placed on recycling bins with very low contamination or no contamination,” Mayor Hall said.

When recycling residents should make sure all items are loose, as bagged items can’t be recycled, ensure all recyclables are empty and rinsed to reduce contamination, and all lids are removed from bottles and containers.

For an A-Z recycling guide, visit www.recycleright.wa.gov.au. To receive a free recycling sticker for the lid of your recycling bin, please email City of Canning at waste@canning.wa.gov.au.

The City also has waste sorting information in 18 different languages available online, for more information please go to www.canning.wa.gov.au/recycling.

This project is supported by the Government of Western Australia and administered by the Waste Authority. The WA Local Government Association manages the WasteSorted Bin Tagging Program and works with Local Governments to deliver the project outcomes.