Waste contamination is not just harming the hip-pocket, but is having a negative impact on the environment too.

City of Ballarat director development and planning Angelique Lush revealed around 15 per cent of materials placed in Ballarat’s yellow-lidded recycling bins cannot be recycled. 

“Sometimes just a few contaminated recycling bins can prevent an entire truckload of recyclables from being reused,” she said. 

“Non-recyclable items, such as plastic bags, nappies and grass, are often placed in these bins, which then contaminates the recycling process. Packaged food, bagged recycling and general waste, soft plastics and electronic waste is also prevalent.”

The cost of removing contaminated material from Ballarat recycling varies from $150,000 to $210,000 per year, according to City of Ballarat. 

A Planet Ark report revealed soft plastics was the most common recycling mistake in recycling. Soft plastics can instead dropped off at REDcycle bins at Coles and Woolworths stores to be recycled.

Putting recyclables in plastic bags was found to be the second most common recycling mistake, meaning the whole bag of recyclable is taken out and put to landfill. 

Contamination of green waste bins is also proving problematic, estimated to cost council $50,000 each year.

Ms Lush said less than one per cent of Ballarat’s green waste is contaminated, but the impact was significant.

“It requires removing the individual contaminated products, which can include plastic from flower pots and labels, before the green waste can be used in landscaping and farming,” she said. 

“We urge the community to be vigilant when placing waste in their green-lidded bin, if we can avoid placing contaminated waste in the green bin from the beginning it helps to avoid the timely processing of removing it later on.”

Grampians Central West Waste and Resource Recovery Group chief executive La Vergne Lehmann said if unsure, residents should check what items can go into each bin with council and if still put it in the landfill bin to avoid contamination.  

“We have to understand we all have to pay to have bins collected and council will end up paying more if there is contamination which means you will be paying more as a consumer,” she said. 

Ms Lehmann said it was more important than ever before to get recycling right following China’s policy change stating it would only accept recyclables with contamination levels less than 0.5 per cent. 

City of Ballarat is advocating for funding to establish an all waste interchange, which would provide the ability to sort through materials and reduce contamination, in turn producing a better product to recycle. 

READ MORE City of Ballarat potentially embroiled in recycling sale fiasco

Ms Lush said educating the community on what can and cannot go into each bins remained a council priority.

“In 2017 we piloted a series of community campaigns, including writing to residents who may not be aware they are putting the wrong item into their yellow and green-lidded bins,” she said.

“We have also carried out a series of audits to understand what people are putting in their bins so we can ensure we’re getting the right message out about recycling and green waste.

“In 2019 innovative, targeted campaigning will be undertaken particularly off the back of the audits to ensure we know who we need to educate. We want to be Australia’s leading waste management city.”

City of Ballarat’s A-Z waste guide to educate the community about what items can go into each bin is available online.  

Sustainability Victoria is currently developing an education campaign on contamination issues in recycling, which is due to be released around April 2019.