Recycling

For a detailed guide about the disposal of household items explore our A-Z Guide to Recycling and Waste below or print a copy here: A-Z Guide to Recycling and Waste(PDF, 74KB).

Rethink Waste Tasmania encourages communities to rethink where their waste is going, and how we can best improve our efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle goods - ultimately to avoid landfill. Rethink Waste is a statewide initiative working to significantly reduce the amount of waste ending up as landfill and creating a sustainable way to reduce the impact of waste on the environment. 

Visit Rethink Waste to find out more. 

Recycled by: MobileMuster

MobileMuster is the product stewardship program of the mobile phone industry and is accredited by the federal government. It is voluntarily funded by all of the major handset manufacturers and network carriers, to provide a free mobile phone recycling program in Australia to the highest environmental standard.

The program is committed to raising awareness and educating the community on why it is important to recycle mobile phones.

• Did you know that there are over 23 million unused mobile phones in people's homes across Australia? It is estimated that only 12% of mobile phones are recycled.
• If you had a million mobile phones you could recover 30kgs of gold ($198K), 300kg ($230K) of silver and over 10,000kgs ($50K) of copper.
• Tokyo 2020 Olympics made 5,000 Gold, Silver & Bronze medals from recycled mobile phones and electronic waste.  Read more online here.

When recycling your unused or unwanted mobile phone, please endeavour to remove any personal information from the device before recycling the device at the Hub. 

Recycled by: Ecocycle

Australians drain the life from more than 400 million batteries each year. Less than 5% are recycled, and our consumption of batteries is increasing year to year. When dumped in landfill, batteries can leak a range of toxic substances, including lead, mercury and cadmium, into the environment.

The Recycle Hub located at Town Hall accepts battery disposal for safe recycling and re-purposing. Simply walk in and drop off your batteries in the designated bay provided - it's that easy!

For larger batteries and larger quantities, collection is also available through the Recycling Shed at the Launceston Waste Centre.

Recycled by: TechCollect

 E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world, yet in Australia, only approximately 35% of this material is currently being recycled. This is disappointing given the impact of e-waste on the environment and the fact that 95-98% of the valuable materials from e-waste items, such as televisions and computers, can be recovered and reused in the manufacture of new items.

Most consumers are unaware that when electronic goods are purchased, a certain amount of the purchase price ($/kg) is set aside and distributed to co-regulatory organisations to manage and recycle these electronic items responsibly at the end of the item's life.     

Recycled by: Planet Ark

Printer cartridges are made up of a complex mix of plastics, metal, inks and toners, they represent a significant investment in resources. When they are disposed of into landfill these resources are lost and simultaneously have a negative impact on our natural environment. That's why Planet Ark joined with Close the Loop® and the participating manufacturers to set up the innovative Cartridges 4 Planet Ark program.

Recycled by: Lions Club Australia

The Lions Club Australia assist humanitarian organisations with the supply and repurposing of eyeglasses to developing countries. 

Lions Recycle for Sight Australia is part of the Lions Clubs International Worldwide Eyeglass Recycling Program, headquartered in Queensland and operating throughout Australia and overseas. 

Over the 26 years that the Australian program has operated, the program has delivered over 7 million pair of refurbished quality spectacles to men, women and children in need across Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

It's time to put your pre-loved eyeglasses to work, deposit them today to be refurbished and repurposed for communities in need across the globe!

Recycled by: Ecocycle

The backing film that gives x-rays their strength is made from a plastic similar to the type used in soft drink and fruit juice bottles. X-rays also contain silver, which is a highly sort after metal.

Recycling of silver occurs within the company using an electrolytic process. Films are placed in a chemical bath that dissolves the silver-containing imaging layer. Material is shredded upon arrival at the processing facility, however, if you are concerned about your personal information, you may cut out the label and dispose of it separately. 

When an electric current is passed through the solution pure metallic silver is deposited on one of the electrodes. The backing film that gives X-rays their strength is made from a plastic similar to the type used in soft drink and fruit juice bottles. It goes into a commodity plastic recycling stream and could end up in products ranging from shampoo bottles to polyester fleece clothing.

Please remove x-rays from their envelopes and recycle them separately in your kerbside recycling service. 

Recycled by: Ecocycle

The CDs and DVDs are shredded to separate the aluminium and the polycarbonate which are both used for further manufacturing. CDs and DVDs have the same processing as used for e-waste material recovery. 

Please remove CDs and DVDs from their packaging and dispose of separately, as the cases are currently not a recoverable material. 

Recycled by: Terracycle

Once collected, the tubes and brushes are separated by composition, shredded and melted into hard plastic that can be remoulded to make new recycled products. 

Recycled by: Aussie Bread Tags

Bread tags have many recycling purposes, from creating doorknobs to bowls, they can be recycled to create a range of new products!

Aussie Bread Tags have been collecting bread tags nationally in Australia since September 2018, and now have more than 100 collection points across the country. In February 2019, they started local recycling through the Transmutation - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle program in Robe, SA. This program allows bread tags to be recycled into products such as doorknobs and bowls.

Recycled by: Nespresso

Nespresso aluminium coffee capsules that are recycled with Nespresso, are sent to a specialist recycling plant based in Nowra, NSW. There, the aluminium is separated from the residual coffee. The coffee is sent to an industrial composting facility, while the aluminium is recycled and sent back to the aluminium industry to produce new aluminium products. 

Council has a limited capacity for recycling initiatives however, we are aware there are many items which can be recycled. Please refer to the list below for recycling programs hosted by other organisations/businesses: 

Milk bottle tops

Some plastic lids (less than 8cm in diameter) are too small to be picked up by our current kerbside recycling program. In order to recycle these lids, they must be separated from the kerbside service and deposited to an individual recycling program.

The City of Launceston used to offer a plastic lid recycling program however, we are no longer able to due to our customer no longer being available. Instead, we encourage you as an individual to seek out your own recycler such as a local artist, business, community group, or school.

More information here: Where to recycle bottle tops in Australia – Precious Plastic Melbourne

Blister packs

Blister packs are not recyclable in the kerbside bin as they contain both plastic and aluminium, which requires shredding to separate the two material types. Instead, these products need to be collected through a separate program and processed at a specialised facility (Recycling Blister Packs (cleanup.org.au)).

In Australia, the separated materials are finding a second life where the plastic is being used in sustainable building materials, and the aluminium is turned into thermal energy storage blocks (for the renewable energy generation process) or deoxidant pucks (for steelmaking) (How blister packs are recycled in Australia by BRAD | Banish).

Some local pharmacists offer blister pack recycling so, next time you are at the chemist ask them if it is a service they offer. Alternatively, companies such as Pharmacycle sell pouches to the individual which you can mail back once filled (fit approximately 150 packs).

Container refund scheme (CRS)

The state government is in the process of setting up the Container Refund Scheme (CRS) which will see monetary compensation for individuals returning eligible drink containers to official drop points.

As this is a state-run program, we do not have any additional information on the program and its progress. Please visit the recycle rewards page Recycle Rewards | Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania for the most recent news on the program. 

If there are any other recycling programs you are aware of, please let us know via contactus@launceston.tas.gov.au so that we can help inform the community of these great opportunities.