City receives funding to reduce recycling contamination

A $15,000 WasteSorted Community Education Grant from the WA Government will assist the City of Gosnells in delivering simple waste and recycling guidelines to the local community to help reduce recycling contamination.

As the City is one of the most culturally diverse local governments in WA, with more than 36 per cent of residents speaking a language other than English at home, these guidelines will be distributed in 15 additional languages.

The project also includes the printing and distribution of 40,000 recycling bin stickers, and the provision of waste education materials to tenants via real estate businesses.

Mayor Terresa Lynes said the grant, facilitated by the Switch your thinking program, would help the City achieve its primary goal to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill due to contamination.

“We all need to work together to take responsibility for how we dispose of waste and make sure we recycle correctly,” she said.

“The vast majority of our community are becoming more aware of the importance of waste avoidance and management.

“The WasteSorted project will run over seven months, starting in December, and will include workshops to better educate and assist our residents.”

Minister for Environment Reece Whitby congratulated the City of Gosnells for its commitment to promote the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling.

“These grants are a great example of the community coming together to inspire and educate the next generation on waste and make a positive difference for our environment,” he said.

“We each have a role to play in creating a low-waste, sustainable State. Small changes at an individual level combine to make a big impact and we can only be successful together.”

Currently, material placed in the City's kerbside recycling bins equates to approximately 65kg per person, per year.

The City's primary objective is to improve the residential commingled recycling contamination rate from 35 per cent in 2021/22 to 25 per cent in the next 12 months. This will result in a reduction of up to 834 tonnes in waste going to landfill due to contamination in the first year.

Click here for information on the City's waste and recycling management.