RecycleSmart and residents of multi-unit dwellings (MUDs) in New South Wales are taking recycling out of the too hard basket.
About $74,000 per annum saved in waste collection fees and an average of five fewer 240-litre bins going to landfill each week – they’re impressive statistics for an environment notoriously labelled too difficult for recycling.
Together with on-demand recycling service RecycleSmart, the residents of a 263-apartment building in Erskineville, New South Wales, are proving multi-unit dwellings (MUDs) can be great recyclers. What began as a way to dispose of polystyrene has grown into a recycling solution for coffee pods, soft plastics, cosmetic packaging, and everything in between.
But according to resident Wendy Showyin, the building’s recycling station is doing more than saving money and landfill space, it’s helping build a community.
“With an apartment complex of our size we can see what we’re doing is making a difference,” Wendy says. “That reflects through each building, from the occupants, to management, and makes the whole property better.
“Everyone’s proud of the fact that their building is setting a good example to the rest of the community. We have a lot of people who are invested in it.”
Limited space for infrastructure and collection services has traditionally forced MUDs into the too hard basket when it comes to recycling. Waste contamination can also be a problem if there is limited buy-in from apartment residents.
RecycleSmart has been working with several councils across New South Wales to offer residents an on-demand service for tricky to recycle items such as clothing, e-waste, and soft plastics – right from their door. In three years, the company has diverted more than 360,000 kilograms of waste from landfill.
Ricky Recalcati, RecycleSmart Head of Operations, says the company began trialling the pick-up service in several MUDs across the City of Sydney in 2021 and has had positive results. The company now works with about 12 MUDs across four council areas and is in discussion with several others to start services in 2023.
“Building managers are seeing behavioural change from residents,” Ricky says. “There is noticeable reduction of contamination in their recycling and red-lid bin usage.”
He believes part of the success of the recycling service in MUDs is having building managers make a clear distinction between regular rubbish collection and a recycling station. It can be as simple as putting signs up in the corner of a garage area, to setting up a storage room with smaller bins and containers to separate recycling streams.
“If there is a big garbage bin area it takes only a few people not doing the right thing to contaminate recycling,” Ricky says. “If we put recycling bins in the garbage room it just becomes another bin.
“We want to make it very clear this is a recycling station.”
Wendy says the journey with RecycleSmart began with several individuals opting into the service but has since transitioned into a scheme that is looked after by the building manager and the cleaners (less red bin work leaves time for tidying the RecycleSmart area).
She suggests starting with a few recyclable items and encouraging ownership of the scheme from residents.
“Each building will have to work with its own community dynamic. We found keeping it light has been our best tactic, also keeping it friendly and positive,” Wendy says. “Our service has changed so much as more people have come on board and offered new ideas.
“As RecycleSmart grows, we grow with them. With 263 apartments in the building, I find we’re big enough to have an impact but not too big to manage. It’s been a game changer.”
For Wendy’s building, the recycling station is in the loading dock, the only common level for the building, and near the entrance, which ensures safety and ease of collection for RecycleSmart drivers.
RecycleSmart now collects soft plastics and polystyrene weekly and coffee pods, coffee cups, batteries, printer cartridges, cosmetic packaging and fluorescent globes when requested. (The RecycleSmart soft plastics collection is not linked to the national REDcycle scheme, which was paused in November 2022, and so has been unaffected in the City of Sydney.)
Ricky says the program is adaptable to any size building, but he has seen most value for buildings with more than 20 units. For buildings with less than 20 units, he suggests residents sign up for individual subscriptions.
He says the process to set up a MUD recycling service is straight forward. A RecycleSmart team member will help access available space onsite and show how to get the community involved. They book a pick-up when required and the drivers take care of the rest.
Every time a RecycleSmart driver collects bags of recyclables the bags are sorted and weighed. The volume of plastics, e-waste, clothing, and problem waste is logged, as is the number of bags collected and pick-ups.
Ricky says the data collected helps encourage more involvement.
“Residents can see the good they are doing,” he says. “They can see that in this week 100 kilos that would have gone to landfill has instead been recycled. It’s tangible evidence.”
For more information, visit: www.recyclesmart.com
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
