Supportive Services Initiatives & Programs

Best Practice Kerbside Recycling and Public Place Recycling

Swan Hill Rural City Council has introduced new public place recycling bins throughout Riverside Park, Pioneer Settlement and the outdoor Swimming Pool.

The bin enclosures have both a general rubbish and a recycle bin, clearly marked to help users to separate their materials.

Introducing these infrastructures – which accept recyclable products such as aluminium and steel cans, bottles and milk cartons – is part of Swan Hill Rural City Council's commitment to recycling and reducing its waste.

The dual units have also been introduced in Campbell Street and incorporate the Swan Hill colours and form a part of the Campbell Street beautification process.

These units also have clear signage to assist users in separating recyclables from general garbage. Residents and visitors to our town will be able to recycle when out and about just as they do at home.

Council's aim is to divert waste from landfill and reach the Towards Zero Waste targets as established in the Swan Hill Rural City Council Waste Management Strategy.

If you are interested in any of our other programs and initiatives please click on the links below. You can see what is happening at the Swan Hill Landfill or the initiatives that the Swan Hill Council supports.

Services and Facilities at the Swan Hill Landfill

Reuse Sales Centre

drumMUSTER

E-Recycling

Waste Oil Collection Facilities

Programs & Initiatives

Get it Sorted

Blinky Bulb Campaign

Recycle Right with Recycle Annie

Detox Your Home

ChemClear®

Services and Facilities at the Swan Hill Landfill

Reuse Sales Centre

Swan Hill Rural City Council have incorporated a Reuse Sales Centre at the Swan Hill Landfill. Sustainability Victoria has co-funded this project to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

If you have any old possessions that can be reused please drop them off at the landfill. Your trash could be someone else's treasure. The Reuse Sales Centre accepts items such as furniture (couches, tables, dressers etc.), bikes, sporting goods, bric-a-brac, games and toys.

The Landfill currently only operating weekends for sale of these items, however all unwanted items can be dropped to the Reuse Sales Centre during the week.

drumMUSTER - drumMUSTER makes it easy

Recycling your eligible farm chemical containers with drumMUSTER is easy – all you need to do is follow these simple steps:-

• Triple or Pressure rinse your containers IMMEDIATELY after use.
• Pour the rinse water back into your spay tank.
• Make sure ALL chemical residue is removed.
• REMOVE LIDS to allow your containers to DRY thoroughly.  Take lids SEPARATELY to collections.
• Metal containers should be PUNCTURED from the top through the bottom.
• DELIVER your eligible clean empty containers to your local drumMUSTER collections centre.

Some chemicals are not allowed to be recycled through DrumMuster, please enquire for more information.

For any further information please contact the Swan Hill Rural City Council, your local landfill or drumMUSTER on www.drummuster.com.au.

e-recycle - If you can plug it in, it can be recycled!

E-Recycling was launched by the Central Murray Regional Waste Management Group in partnership with Swan Hill Rural City Council, Transpacific Industries Group Pty Ltd  and PGM Refiners at the Swan Hill Landfill on 29 February 2008.

Do you have unwanted or broken electrical appliances?

You can now RECYCLE them at the Swan Hill Landfill or your local transfer station.

There is a $5 fee for items with a screen such as TV's, laptops and monitors but everything else can be dropped off FREE OF CHARGE!

For further information please contact Elizabeth at the Swan Hill Rural City Council on 5036 2401 or the Swan Hill Landfill on 5032 9260.

Waste Oil Collection Facilities

Manangatang, Robinvale and Swan Hill Landfills now have facilities for residents to safely dispose of used motor oil. These permanent waste disposal tanks will allow for the recycling of motor oil that might otherwise cause a hazard to our river environment and wildlife.

The used motor oil is recycled into industrial burner oil, mould oil, hydraulic oil or as an additive in manufacturing and bitumen based goods.

Environment Officer, Sue Mahon, said “the oil recycling facilities add to the existing recycling services across the municipality and make it easy to do the right thing by our environment”.

Oils that are accepted are;

• Hydraulic
• Gear
• Engine
• Sump

Programs & Initiatives…..

Get It Sorted!

Getting the most out of your Resource Recovery Centre

Get It Sorted is a state wide campaign that aims to help communities use their local resource recovery centre to its full capacity.

Resource recovery centres are often referred as transfer stations or in many cases ‘tips'.  These facilities provided in over 270 communities across Victoria and have been designed to help reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill and recycle as much as we possibly can.

Unlike landfills, resource recovery centres can accept a wide variety of recyclable materials and you are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the drop off services that are available for recyclable material.

In the Central Murray Region there are 26 resource recovery centres. These Centres were established after the Council decided to close the existing landfill and to ensure that the community still had access to a waste and recycling disposal facility.

You can recycle a wide range of materials at the resource recovery centres in the Region and in many cases you can drop some of these items off for free!

Click here for more information on sorting your load and what items are recyclable at local facilities.

So now you know all you need to know about your local resource recovery centre. Remember, unsorted loads cop the maximum fee, so GET IT SORTED! 

The Get It Sorted campaign is an initiative of the Association of Victorian Regional Waste Management Groups, supported by the Victorian Government Sustainability Fund.

www.blinkybulb.com.au

Blinky Bulb is a new recycling program for compact fluorescent tubes and globes. Fluorescent tubes (conventional and compact) contain mercury, a valuable but very toxic heavy metal. Mercury is the most toxic pollutant, after radioactive substances, on the Environment Protection Authority's list of industrial pollutants.

To keep mercury out of our environment, we are pleased to offer a new recycling program for your tubes and globes. Please make sure that you deliver your tubes and globes to the drop off points intact (do not take broken tubes or globes to collection points).

Collection points around the Central Murray Region include:

Buloke Shire

Loddon Shire

Gannawarra Shire

Swan Hill Rural City

For more details and opening times please head to www.blinkybulb.com.au

Our new mascot Recycle Annie features in a new campaign with her very important message “Remember to Recycle Right!”

Recycle Annie features in a series of TV commercials, newspaper articles and in community centres encouraging you to put the right things into your recycling bin.

Many people aren't aware of what happens to your recycling once its collected from the kerb, and our partners VISY, Ellwaste and the Central Murray Regional Waste Management Group want to get the message out to all residents that contamination puts a spanner in the works! 

Contamination occurs when the wrong items are put into recycling bins, which makes it very difficult for the workers at the Material Recovery Facilities.

Always put your recyclables in the bin loose (not in plastic bags) and rinse them out in your dirty dishwater to save water.

What can I recycle?

• Aluminium and steel cans, clean foil and foil trays, empty aerosol cans
• Glass jars and bottles (and their lids)
• All clean paper including newspapers, envelopes (even those with plastic windows), magazines, brochures, booklets, phone books
• Clean flattened cardboard (all sizes)
• Milk and juice cartons
• Plastic containers (codes 1-7) including milk, juice, soft drink, cordial and detergent bottles, ice cream, yogurt, margarine, clear takeaway food containers and lids

What can't I recycle?

• Plastic bags (all types), plastic wrap and bubble wrap
• Polystyrene
• Soiled cardboard (eg pizza boxes) and waxed cardboard
• Food waste
• Garden and lawn clippings
• Crockery, glassware, light globes, window glass
• Clothes and toys
• Nappies
• Electrical appliances
• Batteries and chemical containers

What about other items?

We have recycling systems for a range of other items at our landfills and transfer stations and through specialised recycling collection programs.

Please don't put these items in your kerbside recycling bin.

• DETOX YOUR HOME ~ Batteries, chemical containers, light globes, pharmaceuticals, paint tins, gas cylinders. Look out for information on Detox Collections on our website on in local newspapers
• E-RECYCLING PROGRAM ~ you can take all your electrical appliances to our landfills or transfer stations
• GARDEN WASTE ~ you can take your green waste to our landfills or transfer stations for disposal
• SCRAP METAL ~ engine parts, motors, scrap metal can be take to our landfills and transfer stations for recycling
• SILAGE WRAP ~ silage wrap, vine wrap and bunker wrap can be taken to our landfills and transfer stations for recycling (it must be clean and packed in wool bales)
• OIL RECYCLING ~ used motor oil can be recycled for free at our landfills and transfer stations 

For more information head to www.cmrwmg.com.au

Detox Your Home

Swan Hill residents care for the environment

Swan Hill residents have diverted almost 847kg of potentially harmful chemicals from landfill through Sustainability Victoria's Detox Your Home Chemical Collection on Sunday 20 July.

Organised by Swan Hill Rural City Council in partnership with Sustainability Victoria, the Detox Your Home program helps residents dispose of their old and unwanted chemicals in an environmentally responsible way.

There was a 35% increase in respondents attending the collection from 23 in 2006 to 31 on this occasion.  Of the material collected, 63% was paint, 15% batteries, 8% compressed gasses, with the remainder being other harmful chemicals.

Sustainability Victoria is a Victorian Government Agency. Chief Executive Officer, Anita Roper said residents are doing themselves, their council and the environment a great service by participating in the chemical collection days.

“The safe disposal of these products protects our homes and prevents the chemicals from being dumped into our environment.”

 “The community's response to the collection day was excellent. The service has ensured that dangerous materials being stored in local homes have been sorted, treated, recycled or disposed of appropriately,” Mrs Roper said.

Further information can be found on the Sustainability Victoria website www.sustainability.vic.gov.au

ChemClear®

The objectives of the ChemClear^® program are to:

1. Minimise the generation of unwanted rural chemicals;
2. Minimise the accumulation of unwanted rural chemicals and any associated risks of impacts to the environment, public health and trade;
3. Provide for a collection and disposal service for rural chemicals;
4. Provide a management system for unwanted registered rural chemicals which is;
• Effective in achieving a high rate of participation of waste holders;
• Accessible by all users who may hold those chemicals; and
• Provided at lowest possible cost.

ChemClear^® encourages any holder of unwanted rural chemicals to register their unwanted products on our booking line.  You may visit the booking site at www.chemclear.com.au or by calling 1800 008 182 from any region of Australia.  Please ensure that you have a completed inventory of your unwanted products prior to contacting the booking line.  Include all identifying features of the chemical for disposal such as manufacturer name, product name, size of container and quantity remaining in container.