The New Norfolk community has returned more than one million eligible containers to the New Norfolk refund point in just three months. It is the busiest refund point outside of a metropolitan area, and just the sixth refund point to surpass one million eligible containers returned since Recycle Rewards began on 1 May.
Located in the carpark of Woolworths New Norfolk, the refund point is well located for locals to integrate returning eligible containers into their regular routine.
Community group Derwent Valley Tidy Towns has played an active role in driving returns through its awareness raising campaign, which focuses on educating local businesses that supply eligible containers to separate them for recycling.
According to secretary Tim Morris, the group has already diverted more than 23m3 from landfill. It’s a win-win-win – for Derwent Valley Tidy Towns, local businesses and the environment too.
As Morris says, “Now that our initial Council funding has ended we are pleased to find that collecting containers that were previously going to landfill is a time efficient method of raising our own funds so that we can keep doing our litter collection and graffiti removal work.” Morris adds that he’s hopeful for what’s ahead. “Sometime next year we may even be able to expand our activities to include community and school education about the importance of preventing and cleaning up litter.”
As TasRecycle CEO Ken Roughley said, “Nice work New Norfolk! It’s so inspiring to see a regional community lead the way in reshaping how we recycle. Using Recycle Rewards helps create clean streams of recyclable materials for the circular economy. This improves recycling outcomes, creates new job opportunities and benefits our environment too.”
It has never been easier to help keep recyclables out of landfill and litter out of the environment, with Tasmanians encouraged to continue to recycle their eligible drink containers at more than 40 convenient and accessible refund points across the state, including on King and Flinders Islands.
Every eligible drink container returned receives a 10c refund, which you can keep for yourself or donate to a local charity or community group.
Three months since Recycle Rewards began, Tasmanians are continuing to embrace the scheme. Statewide eligible container returns currently average more than 228,000 per day and growing, with more than 22 million eligible containers already returned.
The state’s top refund points are spread right across the state. Devonport in the northwest is the state’s busiest site, followed by Hobart’s Claremont and Bridgewater and Launceston’s Mowbray and Meadow Mews. More than one million eligible containers have been returned at each of these sites.
Aluminium continues to be the top material returned, accounting for approximately 65% of returns. Plastics made up about 20%, glass 13% and liquid paperboard carton about 2%.
Visit recyclerewards.com.au for more information about Recycle Rewards, including container eligibility, refund point locations, signing up as a Donation Partner and how to make the most out of your fundraising effort.