Recycling Benefits

Savings from Recycling

Changes in recent years has seen the cost of collecting and reprocessing domestic recycling reduce significantly as new technology and markets become available for recyclables. For example, since Council introduced the co-mingled collection service, which allows residents to put all of their paper, cardboard and recycling material into one bin, the cost per household has been reduced from $49.77 per year to $34.29 per year.

By contrast, the cost of disposing waste to landfill is on the rise as pressure increases to reduce waste volumes and construction and maintenance costs for landfills increase to ensure compliance with environmental guidelines and industry standards.

Ballarat's Recycling Achievements

The Ballarat community has continued embraced good recycling practices as a greater variety of waste product is included in the recycle mix. The amount of recycled material collected by Council has increase by 38% since the introduction of the co-mingled service in October 2004. This provides an enormous benefit both environmentally and economically.

In 2005 the Ballarat Community recycled 7,848 tonnes of material. The table below shows just some of the benefits to our environment:

What we've saved Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec TOTAL Trees 5033 4814.16 5282.628 4742.868 5025.072 4804.644 4502.16 5150.34 5171.088 5062.668 5504.772 6128.304 61221.264 Barrels of Oil 968 925.8 1016 912.09 966 923.97 866 990.45 994 973.59 1059 1178.52 11773.32 kWh Of Electricity 1587192 1518312 1666059.6 1495827.6 1584830.4 1515310.8 1419912 1624338 1630881.6 1596687.6 1736120.4 1932772.8 19308244.8 Cubic Metres of Landfill 1548 1481.28 1625 1459 1546 1478 1385 1585 1591 1558 1694 1886 18837 Litres Of Water 12302674 11768770 12913994 11594488 12284368 11745507 11006050 12590600 12641321 12376276 13457050 14981346 149662443.8 Green House Gas CO2 Equivalents (tonnes) 66 63 69 62 66 63 59 68 68 67 72 81 805   The recycling industry is continuing to look for new markets and technology to increase the range of products that can be recycled. This information will be made available as changes occur. Developments are progressing with items such as plastic bags and soft plastics. Where does your recyclable material go? Material collected through the fortnightly recycling collection is transported to a state-of-the-art materials sorting and recovery centre in Melbourne. For more information visit www.sustainability.vic.gov.au.