Clean up your waste with the Australasian Recycling Label

Clean up your waste with the Australasian Recycling Label

By Alejandra Laclette  February 12th, 2019

Make sure you look for the Australasian Recycling Label if you pick up any packaging this Clean Up Australia Day (and follow the instructions!)

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Clean Up Australia Day is right around the corner, and many Aussies will go out and about to pick up rubbish from different sites. Planet Ark and APCO will be hosting a clean up site at Bondi Beach on the 1st of March from 14:30 to 16:30. Come and join us and spend some quality time with your feet on the sand. Register here!

But what happens to the rubbish placed in the bins? If it is not sorted correctly, it is very likely that it will end up in landfill, causing major environmental and health problems to all of us.

That is why it is so important to know how to dispose of our waste, and the Australasian Recycling Label tells us exactly that! It provides easy to understand instructions about how to correctly dispose of every part of your product’s packaging – whether it’s a tray, a lid, a film etc...  

The Australasian Recycling Label has 3 different variations:

  1. A black recycling symbol, which means an item should go in kerbside recycling.
  2. A white recycling symbol, which means an item is conditionally recyclable, provided you follow the instructions under the symbol.
  3. A bin symbol, which indicates an item can’t be recycled and needs to go in the rubbish.

When we get our packaging in the right bin, we all help prevent contamination in our waste stream, and it also keeps the stuff we should be recycling out of landfill.

So, make sure that if you pick up any packaging this Clean Up Australia Day, check the label to see which parts belong in the recycling, the rubbish, or can be returned to Coles or Woollies to recycle. 

If your favourite brands are not using the Australasian Recycling Label, hit them up on their social media pages. We’ve made it easy with some text you can copy and paste here.

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By Alejandra Laclette

After managing the sustainability educational program at her corporate job in Mexico, Alejandra decided to move to Sydney and undertake a Master in Sustainable Development, while working as a Sustainability Consultant for a compostable packaging company. She's now Planet Ark's Recycling Label Program Manager.

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