NATIONAL Recycling Week is on until Sunday, November 16. To celebrate, the Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme (CDS Vic) shares what happens next, and how every returned container helps power Victoria’s circular economy with its Join the Cycle campaign.
“National Recycling Week is a timely reminder of our shared commitment to a more sustainable Victoria,” said Interim Chief Executive of scheme coordinator VicReturn, Marianne Doyle.
“Recycling eligible drink containers means fewer virgin materials are needed to make new bottles and cans, reducing our impact on the environment,” she said.
The recycling process begins when Victorians return their drink containers at one of the hundreds of refund points across the state. From there, they’re sorted by material type and sent to recycling facilities to be processed back into new products.
Plastic bottles are sorted by material type (PET, HDPE and others) and recycled at facilities in Victoria. They’re cleaned, shredded into flakes, melted down, extruded and turned into pellets, then used to make new products.
Glass bottles are cleaned and sorted by colour into glass cullet, at facilities in Victoria and South Australia. The cullet is then sent to glass manufacturing plants in Victoria and South Australia that use it in the production of new glass bottles and jars.
Aluminium cans are bailed before being shipped overseas to be reprocessed into aluminium coils. These are returned to Australia where they are used to make new drink cans.
Join the cycle this National Recycling Week by collecting and returning eligible drink containers for a 10-cent refund at your nearest refund point. Visit cdsvic.org.au to learn more.
