Decontaminating The Norfolk Wave

We’ve often thrown around the word ‘contamination’ when referring to The Norfolk Wave Recycling Centre. Contamination relates primarily to food or food residue amongst otherwise recyclable materials like containers, jars, and bags. We may also use it to describe the presence of plastics in the organics stream or mixed recyclables in the cardboard bin. Today, we will talk about food contamination in the Recyclapod stream.

Contamination can be minor, like unrinsed containers or tea bags, or significant, like entire chicken carcasses and general kitchen scraps. Whether major or minor, food contamination dramatically decreases the efficiency of our processes.

Our emphasis on cleanliness is brought about by our recycling methods, which need uncontaminated materials. The cleaner the input, the cleaner the output. We’re set up to be able to clean items if necessary. However, our focus should be primarily on sorting, and we ask that you focus on cleaning. Not only does this tighten up our operations, but it also decreases water usage when you use your old dishwater for rinsing containers.

The uptake by the community has been overwhelming, as shown by our 75% recycling rate. We hope to increase this diversion from landfill to 80% by August, so we’ll focus more on contamination awareness in the coming weeks and months. Expect to see one of our team out the front, ready to assist and provide feedback on your rubbish and increased tips and tricks on social media.

Initiatives such as the Banyan Park compostable nappy trial and the incorporation of Terracycle programs at the centre will aid in us reaching our goal within the first 12 months of operations. However, yorlyi’s collective efforts will have the most significant impact.

Once again, if you have any questions, please get in touch with us on social media or come visit The Norfolk Wave.

Thaenks f aklan,

Lil, Dan, Mandi and the Revolve Your World team