Getting Your Baseline
Right for Public Place Recycling
Presentation by Manny Manatakis
manatakis@primus.com.au

PSS...
It is all about the hole

Once upon a time a council forgot to install
their public place recycling signs...
But they did install a bin limiter

No one told the auditors council
forgot to install the recycling signs.

Lets just say the audit found
recycling bin contamination
was well below 10%

How can this be so?

Because size matters

Just don’t make the hole the too big
and keep the rubber limiter

see the forest
for the trees

Away from home recycling should not
be about teaching local government
how to design the perfect street bin.

Consider this,
A local government has
approximately 100 public place
recycling bins, which are estimated
to each recover 450 kg per annum.

Analysis by weight
waste
16%
Liquid waste in
drink containers
11% Glass beverage
bottles
39%
Paper and
cardboard PET beverage
6% bottles
20%
other recycable
containers
4% Aluminium Cans
4%

Their capital investment of $1,000 to $1,500 on each public place recycling
bin is projected to return 4 ½ tonnes of recyclables over a ten year period.
It costs between 25 to 33 cents to
establish the infrastructure to
recover each 1 kg of recyclables.

If their bins were collected three times a week for a cost $1.30 per pick up.
Every kilogram of recyclables
costs 44 cents to collect.

So what does it cost to recover the following
resources in this public place recycling system?
9 cents
1 cent
2 cents

But what if we had an
advanced recycling fee
system in place

We consume between
12 to 15 billion beverage
containers every year.

cent per container
advance recycling fee could collect

$120,000,000

CDL ARF
rate payer
Well what are the other options?

MAYBE
Local government could fund a national public place
recycling system, they are made of money???

Lets get the economics sorted out first. Before we
start designing the perfect bin with the perfect
sign with the perfect education program.

Commission more audits with
economic and environmental
analysis and have an open debate.

Presentation by Manny Manatakis manatakis@primus.com.au
Acknowledge: Images Istockphotos