Used nappies, medical waste, syringes, and animal carcasses are some of the dangerous goods the Glen Innes Recycling Centre staff are dealing with every day as they sort the contents of residents’ recycling bins.  

“There is no thought or consideration from locals that our plant is still a manual processing plant, we don’t have anything hi-tech, our workers are physically having to sift through things like soiled adult incontinence aids and things like that in volumes,” Glen Industries general manager Kylie Hawkins said.

“Council will now have to get inspectors to go on patrol in the truck to capture the imagery of what is being dumped and by GPS tracking punish those who are putting this disgusting, clearly not recyclable rubbish in their bins.

“Their punishment should not be a fine, it should be to go to the processing plant and work for a week and see the impact their ignorance is having upon workers by putting these putrid items in their recycling.”

Development planning and regulatory services director Graham Price said up to fifty percent of recycling loads are being abandoned to the Glen Innes landfill site because the loads are contaminated with hundreds of used nappies, bags of rotting food and animal faeces. 

“Staff at the centre are also finding building materials, and car batteries in recycling loads,” he said.

“The staff physically sorts the recycling as the loads come through and they are at high risk of personal injury and infection from the contamination that residents are putting in the recycling bins.

"Asbestos waste is often found in the recycling which is also highly dangerous to human health.”

Mr Price added  residents should be well aware of what items can be placed in their 240 litre recycle bin.

“Only plastic bottles and containers, newspapers, magazines, junk mail, cardboard, office papers, glass bottles and jars, milk and juice cartons, and steel, aerosol and aluminium cans can be placed in the recycle bin,” he said.