Council’s got excess packaging waste sorted

Sunday, 26 September 2021

NOW CLOSED

With traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ stores remaining closed during lockdown, the surge in online shopping is producing an unprecedented by-product – packaging waste.

For residents in the Penrith local government area, Penrith City Council is introducing two drop-off collection days over the coming weeks to dispose of cardboard boxes and paper-based packaging as a result of home deliveries. The service will be available at the Penrith Civic Centre on Mondays and Fridays between 2pm and 6pm.

Penrith Mayor Karen McKeown OAM welcomed the drop-off collections which give equal access to all residents now that travel within the LGA is permitted for everyone.

“This is a wonderful initiative in response to the community’s needs,” Cr McKeown said.

“The surge in online shopping has meant that packaging waste is quickly filling our yellow-lidded recycle bins and for residents who are quite active online shoppers we have a solution for them.

“Many of the packages we receive are made from recyclable materials and by placing the packaging into the yellow-lidded bins or by bringing them to our collection point, it ensures we keep the material out of landfill by processing it into another usable product,” Cr McKeown said.

Residents can bring cardboard boxes and paper-based packaging to the Civic Centre (601 High Street, Penrith) for collection. All materials will be sent to VISY’s ‘Super MRF’ facility in Smithfield which has a sorting capacity of 900 tonnes per day, with paper based materials processed onsite.

Simply pack your cardboard boxes and paper-based packaging into the boot of your car and bring it to the Civic Centre on either Monday or Friday between 2pm to 6pm and our staff will unpack if from your boot in a COVID-safe way. This will mean your packaging waste will be disposed of in a responsible way.

Recyclable Collection
What: Bring your paper based packaging that is either too big to fit in your yellow-lidded bin or if you have run out of room in the bin prior to its collection.
Where: Penrith Civic Centre, 601 High Street, Penrith
When: This temporary program has now finished. 

Information contained within this news release was correct as at Sunday, 26 September 2021.