Community
26 February, 2025
He’s not taking any rubbish
MACHANS Beach Community Association has rolled out a new initiative to help reduce landfill, encouraging members of the community to separate their waste from what can be reused with the trial of new recycling containers.
Currently consisting of crates attached to each rubbish bin, the containers display signs encouraging people to reduce unnecessary landfill by placing their cans and bottles in the container instead of general waste.
Association member Leon Bradley has volunteered to empty each container around the suburb.
He said the initiative had been successful so far, holding high hopes and plans for the future.
“The response (so far) has been really good,” Mr Bradley said.
“We're planning to put a couple more on the other bins along the Esplanade,” he said.
“I (also) think it's really important to put one down on the mouth of the Barron River.
“Many people go down to the river mouth with lots of drink, and a lot of them just leave empty cans and bottles on the ground.
“There’s a lot of locals who go down there and clean up the area, with many actually saving them for me.
“The attitude of the locals has been really good.
“As far as recognising that I'm actually doing something about reducing the amount of waste going to landfill, they like it.”
Another association member Deryck Thompson said the new initiative was a great way for the community to help make a difference in the amount of recyclable material that was reused, and use their creativity to tackle issues that impact their day-to-day lives.
“The trial at Machans will hopefully encourage other organisations and individuals to place additional collection boxes alongside public rubbish bins, so that drink containers will be recycled and not end up as landfill,” he said.
“Every year, Queensland generates about three billion drink containers,” Mr Thompson said.
“Approximately half are returned under the ‘Containers for Change’ scheme.”
