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Charities no home for your unusable goods and garbage

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Minister for Environment and Climate Change Ryan Smith is reminding Victorians to think carefully before they dispose of unwanted, unusable household goods at charities and to instead use designated waste collection points across the state.

"It is very disappointing to see people unfairly dumping their waste on charities who are providing various welfare services to communities," Mr Smith said.

"Many Victorians simply aren't aware that charities cannot sell various items. When they do find out that items such as old analogue TVs aren't accepted, it leaves people wondering how they can dispose of their waste guilt free," Mr Smith said.

"A number of options exist for people to rid their homes of items not useful to them or to charities, but that may be useful as reusable raw material," Mr Smith said.

Here are some tips for disposing of materials which are unsuitable for donation to charities.

Tips for disposing of your unwanted, unusable household goods responsibly

• Consider a scrap metal merchant for unusable large appliances and whitegoods.
• Contact your local council for details of the nearest Resource Recovery Centre – they may have resale centres. (Note to Ed: a list of Resource Recovery Centres is attached).
• Visit www.recyclingnearyou.com.au to search for services in your local area for the material you need to dispose of.
• Arrange a hard rubbish collection through your local council.
• For disposal of household chemicals, paints, batteries and BBQ cylinders, the Victorian Coalition Government's Detox Your Home Program runs in a number of areas – check www.resourcesmart.vic.gov.au for details.
• Recycle computers and accessories with the Victorian Coalition Government's Byteback program – check resourcesmart.vic.gov.au for details.
• Polystyrene can be recycled free of charge at nine local council Resource Recovery centres across Metropolitan Melbourne. For locations visit www.mwmg.vic.gov.au 

"We are actively working on longer term solutions to help charities reduce the illegal dumping of waste and non-recyclables on charity premises," Mr Smith said.

"I have asked the combined resources of the EPA, DSE and SV to come up with potential solutions to help out on dealing with the incoming waste.

"My office is working closely with charities to develop an urgent solution to what has been a long-standing problem," Mr Smith said.

The Coalition Government remains committed to boosting recycling and waste recovery across Victoria by investing in initiatives such as $3 million Driving New Investment in Recycling grants to assist industry implement new forms of recycling that will reduce the amount of waste headed to landfill, $14 million to help reduce the amount of litter in public places around Victoria and funding the television recycling scheme in regional Victoria.

For more information about recycling centres near you, visit www.sustainability.vic.gov.au 

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