Got some old tins of paint cluttering up the garage? The lid’s rusted on, the label’s peeled off and you painted over the colour years ago. But what to do with that can?
How about dead light bulbs, out-of date gas bottles or used batteries?
If you live in the Tweed, that problem’s been solved for you with the opening of the new Tweed Community Recycling Centre (CRC) yesterday, which allows householders to drop off problem wastes such as paints, oils, gas bottles and batteries for free.
It’s part of the NSW Government’s Waste Less, Recycle More initiative and has been paid for by a grant $70,250 to tip operator North East Waste.
Tweed Shire Council contributed $33,000 towards the cost, as well as funding the facility’s ongoing management. It is one of a number of ongoing initiatives by Council to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
Tweed MP Geoff Provest said that establishing facility would ‘greatly assist Council and the NSW Government in their efforts to keep problem wastes out of landfill.’
‘We want to encourage communities to recycle these problem wastes to help prevent contaminants from entering the environment.The centre will complement the community’s existing recycling services, minimise waste and increase recycling,’ he added.
The centre is part of a network of 100 facilities being established across NSW at a cost to the state government of $127 million.
Tweed mayor Katie Milne said the upgraded Waste Recovery Centre is ‘looking much better and is so easy to use, with great opening hours until 3.45pm every day of the year except Christmas Day and Good Friday. ’
‘Tweed residents can drop off household quantities – up to 20 litres or 20 kilograms – of paints, batteries, light bulbs, oils, smoke detectors, gas bottles and e-waste such as computers and TVs at the CRC for free.
In addition, household chemicals including pesticides and herbicides can be dropped at the Hazardous Waste Store.’
Cr Milne encouraged community members to ‘visit the upgraded facility, do some shopping at the tip shop and, for people who are thinking of adding a new pet to their household, to visit the pound next door’.
The Tweed Community Recycling Centre is located at the Stotts Creeks Resource Recovery Centre at Leddays Road, Stotts Creek. It is open Monday-Friday 7am to 3.45pm, weekends and public holidays 9am to 3.45pm.
The Tweed CRC accepts the following problem wastes for free:
- water-based and oil-based paints
- used motor oils and other oils
- lead-acid and hand-held batteries
- gas cylinders and fire extinguishers
- conventional tube and compact fluorescent lamps
- smoke detectors
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