Waste & Recycling

Each Australian produces on average one tonne of rubbish per year*. Reducing waste in our landfills and increasing recycling is important to recover valuable resources and reduce our impact on the environment. The Office of Sustainability is working with everyone to provide more recycling options on campus and promote the importance of recycling.

Interesting Facts about Waste and Recycling*:

• A recycled can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours.
• Once an aluminium can is recycled, it’s back on the grocery shelf within as a new aluminium can within 60 days.
• Recycling 1 tonne of plastic saves enough energy to run a refrigerator for 1 month!
• Every 10 tonnes of recyclable materials recovered is equivalent to saving enough water to fill 3.5 average backyard swimming pools.

(*information provided by SITA)

Check out Zero Waste SA Recycle Right Search Engine - great for quick answers to waste and recycling questions!

Clean Up Australia Day 2012 - Waite Child Care Centre

The Waite Child Care Centre participated in Clean Up Australia Day again this year (photos below). In 5 groups, the children collected a total of 3 large bags of rubbish from the Waite Campus and surrounding areas.  The children were part of 590,000 volunteers at 7,363 sites across Australia, cleaning up local streets, parks, beaches and bushland.

What you can do:

• Look for goods with little or no packaging
• If you have to print, go for double side
• Bring lunches to work in reusable containers
• Take a reusable coffee cup with you when buying take-away coffee
• Ask suppliers to take away bulky packaging
• Look for items made from materials that can be recycled like cardboard
• Avoid single-use items and over-packaged items
• Reuse glass jars for storage
• Hold a garage sale at home instead of throwing things away at home
• Start your own compost or worm farm at home.

Check out our Zero Waste SA snapshot here.