Recycling FAQs
Click a question to reveal the answer.
Q: What can be recycled in the orange sacks/banks?
Q: What can’t be recycled in the orange sacks and recycling banks and why?
Q: What happens to recycling during collection and sorting?
Q: Why isn’t a food waste collection provided?
Q: Why is the recycling collected mixed together in the orange sacks and recycling banks?
Q: How can I recycle materials that aren't collected through the orange sacks or recycling banks?
Q: Where does the recycling end up?
Q: Can I recycle envelopes with windows?
Q: Can I recycle shredded paper?
Q: Can I recycle aluminium foil?
Aluminum food trays are made of a different alloy (and lower 'grade' of aluminium) to aluminium cans.
The trays are recycled with other aluminum scraps to produce cast items whereas cans are recycled back into cans. To recycle both trays and cans, they would need to be separated at the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF), however the MRF was not designed to achieve this.
The reprocessor, Alutrade, recycles the aluminium sorted by the MRF. Alutrade's past attempt to recycle food trays resulted in an influx of significantly contaminated items, including fast food containers full of curry and foil still wrapped around sandwiches. Food contamination causes health and safety issues for the manual sorters as well as a rodent problem when dirty items are transported and stored.
