Over 41 million containers collected from return and earn in Lake Mac
Lake Macquarie residents have returned a massive 41,146,503 containers at return and earn locations around the City from 1 January to 30 September this year.
This week is National Recycling Week, which is a great chance to highlight the amazing effort of our community in participating in the return and earn scheme. The initiative is very popular in Lake Macquarie and demonstrates the collective power of what can be achieved from a sustainability conscious community.
Lake Macquarie Mayor Cr Kay Fraser congratulated the community on their efforts and recognised the flow on effects that the program has for the City.
“It’s an incredible achievement and our community should be very proud. We’ve saved more than 3000 tonnes of material together that could have otherwise ended up in landfill or in our local environment,” Cr Fraser said.
“We have 14 return and earn stations located across our City, which makes them accessible for people, and it’s fantastic to see people collecting their bottles and cans, loading up their cars and using the stations. I think that is a major part of the success of the program, it’s convenient to return and there is an incentive to earn a little bit back by simply collecting your bottles and cans.”
The numbers paint a positive picture in Lake Mac with an estimated 3258 cubic metres of waste saved from landfill – equivalent to 46,860 wheelie bins – and over 6700 tonnes of Co2 saved – equivalent to taking 1625 cars off the road.
Edgeworth Bowling Club is the most popular return and earn station in Lake Macquarie, while the station located at Lake Macquarie Fair in Mt Hutton has collected the most containers, a staggering 23 million.
National Recycling Week runs from 9 to 15 November 2020 and is an initiative of Planet Ark. For more information and tips visit recyclingnearyou.com.au/nationalrecyclingweek/
