Sorting Our Waste for the New Recycling Centre

Miekduu es wan concept aklan ya orn Norf’k es real familiar with. Each and every one of us either knows, was raised by, or is someone that el miekduu. The word itself is versatile, with many meanings and contexts. You’re ‘making do’ with what you have. You’re living within your means, being resourceful and not wasteful. You find ways to make something work that isn’t exactly conventional, but it does the job. Truck’s blown a gasket, but it’s a three-month wait on parts? A cardboard cut-out gasket will do in the meantime. A shortage of stock feed means your chooks will go hungry? A roadside bin to collect the neighbour's food scraps will help. Preserving a glut of porpieh for later use in the off-season? That collection of jars in the pantry will be perfect! I could give many more examples, but you get the idea. Our resourcefulness shines through in all aspects of life; reusing, salvaging, and upcycling are our forte.

Now, imagine if we weren’t limited to repurposing an item within its existing physical state? Imagine if we could harness the material it was made of and reuse that? What could you make out of beer bottles, ice cream containers, cereal boxes, and plun skin? Read on to find out…

Revolve Your World will be asking for waste to be delivered to the centre in 5 separate waste streams. Food and organics, glass, sanitary, hazardous, and ‘Recyclapod material’. It is super important that each waste stream be clean of food contamination, and of course, the food waste is free from plastic contamination. Clean materials will mean items can move efficiently and cost-effectively onto their next processing stage. Most people already sort into more than just these 5 streams, and if you want to continue doing this, it will be helpful for the speed of the sorting at the centre - however, if you need to prioritise where your time and energy goes, we would prefer that you instead took the time to separate out any food from your plastics, tins, jars etc. The Recyclapod stream is hand sorted by our staff at the Centre, so we ask that it comes in as clean as possible. More info on this below

Food and organics

This waste stream can include food waste, coffee grinds, bones, meat, fish, etc. It’s easy to collect this stream in the home or workplace simply by having a compost caddy or ice cream container (with a lid) on the kitchen bench. Placing the container in the fridge will help slow the decomposition of food waste, eliminate smells, and stop flies from hanging around. If you prefer a liner in your scraps container, make sure it’s compostable! This waste stream will continue to be put through our Hot Rot composter and be turned into beautiful, rich compost for use in the garden to promote Norfolks' food production. It’s crucial that no glad wrap, food packaging, or plastic liners wind up in the food waste bin as they will contaminate the compost with microplastics. Lots of people are using compostable packing on Norfolk (thank you!), especially for takeaways. Compostable packaging can also go into this food and organics stream. Please make sure it is certified ‘compostable’ before you throw it in though. If it is only ‘biodegradable’ it must go in the Recyclapod stream.

Glass

Glass bottles, vases, jars, and drinking glasses make up this waste stream. Norf’k salan are already pretty awesome at separating glass material out. All glass material will be put through our new industrial glass crusher and then screened into different grades of sand, ranging from 5mm to a fine dust. This sand will be used in construction and the concrete-making process. You don’t have to worry about removing labels or bottle tops as these will be screened out in the process; however, please avoid using old bottles as ashtrays (cigarette butts will be collected separately). Windows and windscreens will continue to be managed by NIRC as part of the construction and demolition waste.

Sanitary waste

Sanitary waste includes bandaids, tissues, feminine hygiene products, condoms, nappies, and anything soiled by human fluids. This waste stream can easily be collected at home or work with a small bin in the toilet or bathroom. We ask that this waste stream arrives at the centre bagged separately. This won’t be sorted by waste management staff and will be exported to Queensland for landfill. Please note that paper towels and toilet roll inners don’t belong in this stream, they go in the Recyclapod stream.

Hazardous material

Hazardous material refers to substances or products that contain harmful elements. Some examples include solvent-based paint, pesticides and other garden chemicals and their containers, motor oils, kerosene, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, batteries, and E-waste. This stream isn’t often produced in large quantities by the average household, but when it is, we ask that you please bring it to the centre separately from your other waste. Keeping a small container at home for spent batteries is an easy way to collect them. This stream will be baled and exported to Queensland for proper management and recycling.

Recyclapod material

The fifth and final stream is called the ‘Recyclapod’ stream. This stream consists of plastic containers, plastic wrap, aluminium, steel, paper, cardboard, and all packaging that is not glass. In the past, we have often separated this stream into its different components and then a ‘general waste’ category as well. It may seem like a bit of a backward step to some people that we’re asking you to sort less; however, what we’re really asking is for you to focus on these items arriving clean of food waste. Essentially, the cleaner the waste stream, the faster it can get processed, then the cheaper this system can become for the community over time. This stream will be emptied onto the sorting bench of the Recyclapod and hand sorted into different categories by staff at the centre. From here, all plastics (hard and soft) will be turned into concrete aggregate for local construction and brickmaking. Paper and cardboard free of sticky tape and plastic lining will be put through the composter as its carbon component. Cardboards with plastic lining or small amounts of plastic will be turned into biochar. Biochar is an awesome, carbon-dense product that looks very much like charcoal. It’s an excellent garden amendment that promotes biologically rich and healthy soils. It will also be used in the aggregate process, along with the small amount of ash produced. Waste oil will be used to heat the biochar unit. Aluminium and steel will continue to be baled and exported for recycling in Australia.

We started with burning and dumping in the ocean, transitioned to exporting the majority of our waste to Australia for recycling and landfill, and now we about to ‘catch’ the majority of our household and commercial waste to make products for the community! Glass, sand and concrete aggregate for use in local construction, as well as high-quality compost and biochar to promote food production and security! Daas aklan mieken duu ai thort!

To learn more about how Revolve Your World and our new waste management and recycling system sit so well with our miekduu attitude, come to The Salty (adjacent to Foodlands) this afternoon at 3 o’clock for some informative and fun presentations. We’ll also have food and live music to enjoy.

Or, catch us at Enitaim Cafe morla (Sunday) morning between 8 and 10 for a cuppa and a chat. Another way to keep up to date with whats going on in our world of waste is to head over to our new website (www.thenorfolkwave.com) which will go live on Monday the 13th. This will be the new hub for all the recycling centre activity and information.

Kaa wiet f sii yorlyi des arvo ala morla,

Nat, Mandi, Lilli and the Revolve Your World tea