The unwanted plastic buckets, crates, washing baskets, bottle caps and lids, toys, DVD and CD cases of Hornsby Shire can soon start new lives as bollards, pallets and rails and posts as the Community Recycling Centre in Thornleigh opens its doors to hard plastics for recycling.
The Community Recycling Centre is a free service that makes it easy for residents to safely dispose of problem waste that cannot go into household rubbish bins or kerbside collection. The large range of items already accepted includes household car and motorcycle batteries, soft plastics, electronic waste, flattened cardboard, gas bottles, mobile phones and more.
As of 1 June, Hornsby Shire residents were invited to bring their unwanted hard plastic items for recycling. Only completely plastic items with no metal parts, batteries or electronic components are accepted. Items must weigh less than 20 kilograms and be no more than 1.5 metres in length.
This follows on from the introduction of X-rays, polystyrene and clothing collections in 2020 and 2021.
Hornsby Shire Mayor Philip Ruddock said that this action forms part of the Waste Matters Strategy and is part of a suite of initiatives to assist Council achieve its goal of reducing the amount of waste send to landfill.
“I am so impressed with how the residents of Hornsby Shire are doing their bit to protect our beautiful environment by recycling more each year and getting on board with Council’s Waste Matters initiatives,” said Mayor Ruddock
“Last financial year, around 30,000 vehicles dropped off over 900 tonnes of unwanted items to the Community Recycling Centre, helping us reduce illegal dumping. We currently recover 45 per cent of all kerbside waste collected and are over half way to our goal of diverting 80% of community waste from landfill by 2030.”
A key theme of Hornsby Shire Council’s Sustainable Hornsby 2040 Strategy, Waste Matters aims to ensure the sustainability of the Shire through better waste management practises. Read more at Final-Waste-Matters-Strategy-Report-Digital.pdf (nsw.gov.au)
This Community Recycling Centre is supported by the Environmental Trust as part of the NSW EPA’s Waste Less, Recycle More initiative in partnership with Hornsby Shire Council. It has welcomed over 120,000 vehicles since it opened in 2017.
The centre is again accepting household chemicals and hazardous waste including paint, aerosol cans, oil and solvents after a temporary pause due to a fire at the processing facility.
