Ms Hawkins and her colleagues were thrilled to win the competitive bidding process. She said she doubted whether they would have been the cheapest quote but they jumped through all the hoops the process demanded and submitted a logistical plan for the rollout, and would have received a boost from council’s procurement policy to consider local contractors.

She views the contract as an opportunity for a change in the organisation’s daily activities, breaking up the routine, while also reaching out to householders to make people more responsible about what they put through the recycling system. She said some of the items the crew members come across on the sorting conveyor belt are beyond belief, with excrement and dead animals a too-common inclusion.

Items like containers of oil that burst under pressure and then contaminate entire loads are also frustrating, after other householders have gone to the effort of doing the right thing only to have the load go to landfill.

The 2000 new bins will incorporate a recycling guide under the lid, to help householders determine what goes in and what doesn’t. Glen Industries’ staff will assemble the bins ready for distribution the fortnight starting July 31.

Ms Hawkins said Glen Industries will follow the waste collection truck on its normal route that fortnight. Householders are asked to leave their old recycling bins at the kerb on the usual day after it’s been emptied, for Glen Industries to replace with a new bin later in the day.

Anyone wanting to keep their old recycling bin for any reason is asked to let Glen Industries know by calling (02) 6732 1648 by July 28, and it won’t be collected.

Those that are collected may be re-purposed as extra bins for the showground and for big events, or go to rural landholders so they can do some sorting on-property rather than once they get to the Community Recycling Centre.

“A number of rural landholders drive in every week and self-sort at the CRC,” Ms Hawkins said.

“Extra bins would make it easier to sort the rubbish as it goes in, into glass, paper, cardboard etc.”

Cutting down the bins for on-selling as garden caddies, livestock feeders and worm farms are more of the ideas being considered.

In the meantime, organisers are aiming to streamline the changeover from old to new bins as efficiently as possible, including digitally recording delivery of the new bins so they know exactly who has received them.

“We’re trying to go that way so there’s no confusion,” Ms Hawkins said.