00:00In the basement of her Sydney apartment block, Victoria Collis is making recycling easier
00:08for her neighbours.
00:09Some of it goes to the weekly recycling pick-up that is organised through the council.
00:15She collects more than 50 types of items that can't go in your normal recycling bin, but
00:20can be re-used or recycled with a little elbow grease.
00:25Toothbrushes and toothpaste, I drop them off at Bupa.
00:28Despite her dedication and careful research, it's not easy.
00:31Even when you think you've found something that works, and then you get there and find
00:35out, no, we don't participate in that programme anymore.
00:38This one is from Hampton in Victoria, Walpool and WA.
00:43Lottie DL also wants recycling to be easier.
00:46We've got those pesky pumps and the sprays.
00:49People all over Australia send their tricky items to her company in Sydney for recycling.
00:54You don't have to take your coffee cups somewhere, your blister packs somewhere else, your beauty
00:59products somewhere else.
01:01Confusion over what can and can't go into kerbside recycling is part of the problem.
01:07If there was even a state standard, it would make it so much easier and it would reduce
01:12our contamination rates as well.
01:14More than 7 million tonnes of packaging is either made or imported into Australia every
01:20year.
01:22The federal government set a target of recycling 70% of plastic packaging by 2025.
01:28In 2022-23, we only hit 19%, which is why some question whether small-scale recyclers
01:36make a difference.
01:37It's unlikely that we're probably going to be able to scale these grassroots initiatives
01:42to the level that we would need across Australia.
01:45But that doesn't mean suburban recyclers should be written off.
01:48They help people realise that certain things shouldn't go in the yellow bin and we need
01:51other solutions for them.
01:53The best solution would be to package things differently in the first place.
01:57We're not going to recycle our way out of this.
02:00And that puts the onus on business to find alternatives to plastic packaging.
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