Survey reveals the staggering number of Victorians making recycling mistakes

A new survey has found that only one in four Victorian households are recycling correctly, with many making basic errors when it comes to the curbside bin.

Cleanaway Waste Management found items such as coffee cups and pizza boxes were routinely found at recycling centres.

Another big issue is Victorians aren’t sorting soft plastics correctly.

“So when we think about soft plastics we might be thinking of about your chip packet … you might be thinking about bubble wrap, and polystyrene and Styrofoam are in that category as well,” Sophie O’Halloran from Cleanaway Waste Management said on 3AW Breakfast.

“That continues to trip people up and we see it in our material recovery facilities.”

Ms O’Halloran said people putting soft plastic bags around their recycled items, so they’re not loose in the bin, was also very common.

“The option is there to recycle soft plastics, but the trick is you can’t do it through your curbside bin yet.”

Press PLAY to hear from Sophie O’Halloran below

However Dr Trevor Thornton, lecturer at Deakin University and expert in recycling, said the system was also partly to blame.

“It doesn’t need to be so complicated,” he told Tom Elliott on 3AW Mornings.

“Unfortunately the system we have at the moment, and the infrastructure to sort the recyclables … means that a certain a number of items, and certain types of plastics are able to be recycled.”

Press PLAY to hear more from Dr Trevor Thornton below 

Image: iStock by Getty