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Updated: October 2019

Green Skills Albany has been participating in the TerraCycle Australia program since early 2017. The items are posted to Sydney, where all of the materials are recovered for composting, recycling or upcycling. In 2017-19, Green Skills has sent a total of 28 500 Nespresso pods, 5 415 Nescafe coffee pods, 1 861 L’Or & Moccona coffee pods, 1 625 beauty containers, 518 mailing satchels and 1 279 oral care items to be diverted from landfill. Green Skills has chosen to support the Conservation Council WA with the proceeds ($163 as of October 2019).

Our Albany office is currently a drop-off point for five distinct waste streams. Because these waste streams are sponsored by companies, some of them are brand-specific. To support the use of recycled plastic (a pull-through effect), we purchased recycled plastic tubs to collect your waste materials.

Make sure you drop off the right thing! This is what you can leave in the collection boxes at 38 Graham Street, Albany, during office hours 9-3 weekdays:

colgate_oral_care_accepted_waste-v3-au_copy

Oral care: any brand of toothpaste, toothbrushes including electric toothbrush heads and packaging, or floss (NOT electric bases or bamboo toothbrushes)

Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee pods: only this brand (plastic pods)

L’OR_Coffee_Capsules-accepted_waste-v1-au_(1)

L’OR or Moccona coffee pods: only these brands (aluminium pods)

BIC_Accepted_Waste_Poster_AU_v3_flat

and Nespresso coffee pods (aluminium pods). These go into the cardboard collection box, and are sent directly to Nespresso.

Why don’t we accept your brand of coffee pod? Terraycle programs are sponsored by companies, so some programs are brand-specific. Please don’t mix up the coffee pod brands, because Rachel will have to pick them all out and separate them before posting them off!

Here’s how you can prepare items for recycling.

  • squeeze excess liquid from coffee pods. Australia Post does not like dripping packages. They do not need to be emptied; TerraCycle Australia will turn the coffee grounds into compost at their waste recovery facility.
  • empty excess product from toothpaste tubes. Excess weight is wasteful to post across Australia. Containers do not need to be washed out, but they do need to be empty.

We participate in these programs to provide a service to the community, without making money from it. Please don’t dump waste at our office. We do not accept old batteries, fluorescent light globes, strange pieces of plastic, soft plastics, or other odds and sods. If you drop these off at our office, our staff will have to go out of their way to find other collection points or dump them in landfill. We have to pay to have our landfill and recycling bins collected. Please make sure you’re dropping off the correct items!

Find out where to drop off other items here or ask Cleanaway, Albany’s local waste management service. Albany Eco House also accepts TerraCycle items, as well as bread tags. The Albany Library accepts household batteries, CDs and DVDs, glasses, mobile phones and stamps.

One solution for small odd pieces of plastic is to cut a slit in a plastic bottle and fill it with plastic bottle tops and other little plastic pieces. Place this in your kerbside recycling service, for towns and cities in the Great Southern WA serviced by Cleanaway, and it will go into the ‘mixed plastics’ bale for recycling. If you live in a different council area, please check with your local waste management service to find out the best way to handle this type of waste.

Thanks for helping to keep the TerraCycle program running smoothly and efficiently.