Additional Recyclable Materials

Agencies should also investigate and establish management or collection of materials for which recycling systems are less readily available or may incur a cost. These include:

• electronics, including computers and peripherals
• fluorescent tubes
• plastics other than containers, including plastic film, packaging
• food waste (small scale eg. office food waste)
• food waste (larger scale eg. from operations where large quantities of food waste is generated)

These items are also able to be diverted from landfill and recycled, although they are often a bit trickier to set up management systems for than the 'usual' kinds of recyclable resources like paper, cardboard and containers:

Also check out the section Implementing a Waste Management System.

Please note: In many cases, there is simply not an environmentally responsible option for managing some wastes, either because there is no economy of scale to make collection and treatment/recycling of the materials feasible, or no suitable technology or process for treating/recycling materials exists.