Wagga Council has announced it has decided to discontinue its partnership with the plastic recycling initiative Lids4Kids. Photo: Supplied.
Wagga Wagga residents have been left scratching their heads as to how to recycle bottles properly following Wagga Wagga City Council’s (WWCC) decision to pull the Marketplace’s Lids4Kids collection point.
Lids4Kids is an initiative founded in the ACT. Under the scheme, people can leave caps and lids from bottles at drop-off points and from there they go to charity Envision, which then uses the plastic to create mobility aids for children.
The project began after founder Timothy Miller was told by the ACT and NSW governments that plastic under the size of a credit card couldn’t be recycled and had to be disposed of in landfill.
Mr Miller then founded Lids4Kids as a productive alternative to disposing of plastic caps and lids.
The service was particularly popular in Wagga Wagga’s Marketplace. However, local resident and regular user of the program Donna-Maree Large discovered the service had been removed during a trip to recycle her bottle caps.
“My family and I normally recycle every second weekend,” Ms Large said.
“We’d normally take the lids to a crate at the bottom of the Marketplace escalators but when we went on Monday (17 March), it wasn’t there.
“I rang the Marketplace office and they couldn’t tell us much apart from that Wagga Wagga City Council said it was too expensive to continue.”
A Wagga Wagga City Council spokesperson said the decision was made due to the rising cost of maintaining the initiative.
“Due to changes in the Lids4kids collection processes and costs, as well as increasing financial and logistical challenges, Wagga Wagga City Council has made the decision to discontinue involvement in this scheme and has removed the collection points,” WWCC’s statement read.
“Council will continue to investigate alternative options for the disposal of bottle lids.
“For dedicated supporters of the Lids4Kids program, you can now purchase a recycled, reusable bag and send it to Lids4Kids through Australia Post. For more information please visit: www.lids4kids.org.au.”
The decision to break the partnership with Lids4Kids left Ms Large and several other local residents baffled.
“I’m trying to role model for my family to do the right thing and the bureaucracy makes recycling properly really difficult,” Ms Large said.
“We don’t know what to do with the lids; what do I tell my family? It’s not only about trying to help the environment but the role modelling to children about doing the right thing.”
WWCC’s decision comes less than two weeks after it announced changes to its green-lid waste bins policy that encourages more items to be recycled and less to be disposed of through landfills.
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