Aussie council plans to introduce clear recycling bins to 'rubbish shame' its residents

An Australian council plans to introduce clear recycling bins in order to ‘rubbish shame’ residents into using them properly.

The Adelaide City Council has proposed the rollout to force people to recycle correctly and also to make it easier for locals to fossick through bins for cans and bottles to exchange at recycling depots for 10c each as part of the state’s container deposit scheme.

Adelaide City Councillor Robert Simms hopes the see-through bins would discourage poor recycling practices and ensure Adelaide remained a leader in recycling.

“If we want to encourage behavioural change, I think this is something that will really encourage people to do the right thing … and we have a reputation as a clean, green city,” Mr Simms told Adelaide Now. “In a way, it is kind of naming and shaming.”

The push for transparent bins has been backed by fellow Adelaide City councillor Alex Hyde, who said, “I agree with Rob’s idea, and we should rubbish shame people.”

Do you think clear recycling bins are a good idea? Is ‘rubbish shaming’ people going a bit too far? Or is it in order?

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i dont really care,   but i do think they look ugly,   its bad enough that we have rubbish,   without it being on show,    if anyone wants to poke there nose in mine,  go ahead,   wont find anything of interest,  ALL food waste goes in a LARGE compost bin,   which hubby diligently turns over and over,  now and then,   other rubbish is wrapped in newspaper,   any personal papers are shredded,    outer wrapping from bought goods is broken up and put into the big bin,      nothing to see here,      we dont drink anymore,   so not even an empty beer bottle,   a boring bin,  

I use bin liners anyway so nothing to see in mine....clear or not. This recycle bullying is a joke in light of recent media exposures on our dumping of our rubbish in aces like Malaysia turning their country into an eyesore, and causing financial stress on them to clean up and prosecute those responsible.

What about government gets its own backyard sorted first and foremost? 

See here, 'What's changed one year after our recycling crisis?' [click for ABC link] 

As one article I read said,

"Australia isn't recycling, it's just collecting".

The truth about where it ends up is telling. Contractors in Australia have resorted to stockpiling because of a lack of local reprocessing facilities and more overseas countries refusing Australian waste.

Rather than spending money on clear plastic bins, I think councils would better help the problem if they banded together to build plants that make usable products using recycled materials.

Agreed.  

Talking with friends, their commitment to diligent recycling, emptying and rinsing bottles before binning them etc., is reduced by the reports that the government is all rhetoric. 

One wonders how many of the politicians who claim green credentials are actually interested beyond their self-promotion and headline-grabbing.  Very few I would suggest, from our business experience :(

A absolutely agree. Watched the shocking report on our trash being dumped overseas. It made a compete joke of all the money and bullying of councils etc on recycling. 

I don't agree with the shaming part but agree it will make it easier for those looking to make cash from collecting the cans and bottles. But replacing bins is costly and causing more rubbish for landfill.

I agree with others here we need to fix the recycling in this country before spending more money getting people to recycle properly. Many will never do it because they are just too lazy and don't care.

How long is it going to be before the people looking for extra cash and will be a able to spot a 10c can at the botttom of the bin ..... will just tip the rest of rubbish out and leave it scattered around the street.

Yes, musicveg,  I see so many that chuck anything in ANY bin and don't give a hoot and their recycle bins are full of filthy rubbish -- I have even pulled them up about it -- as they were known to me and they say -- who give a ****    that's the way of the world these days -- what hope have we got?

I feel for the critters and the planet with attitudes such as that

All that you say rings true to me musicveg, yet, we do need to get people sorting appropriately. Shaming seems a bit evil (regardless of what I may have intimated in my last) but eventually there will be a cost to pay and we need to find a way of distributing that according to the real cost of appropriate use and treatment of waste.

On another tack, I also see wastebins week on week over-loaded even when larger bins are used. Conspicuous consumption it is true but is it in any way, beyond laziness, necessary? Because it cannot be good for much at all.

 

All that you say rings true to me musicveg, yet, we do need to get people sorting appropriately. Shaming seems a bit evil (regardless of what I may have intimated in my last) but eventually there will be a cost to pay and we need to find a way of distributing that according to the real cost of appropriate use and treatment of waste.

On another tack, I also see wastebins week on week over-loaded even when larger bins are used. Conspicuous consumption it is true but is it in any way, beyond laziness, necessary? Because it cannot be good for much at all.

 

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