Broken glass, crockery and light globes cannot be recycled through the yellow lid recycle bin.
Broken glass:
Only whole, unbroken glass bottles and jars should be placed in your recycle bin with lids removed. Unlike whole bottles and jars, broken glass breaks up into smaller pieces of glass. These smaller pieces of glass are difficult to collect and contaminate other recyclable material by filtering through and becoming imbedded in materials such as cardboard and paper.
Oven-proof glass such as pyrex is also a contaminant. Due to its much higher melting point, it will not mix and melt properly with other recyclable glass and will cause faults and weaken recycled glass products. It takes only five grams of oven-proof glass to contaminate an entire one-ton batch of recycled container glass. Similarly, drinking glasses are also considered as a contaminant as they made from a different grade of glass that doesn’t mix or melt well with recyclable glass.
Please wrap any broken oven-proof glass dishes or drinking glasses in newspaper before placing them in the waste to landfill (red or blue lid) bin.
If items are unbroken and in good condition please donate them to your local charity store or online through Freecycle, Freally, Facebook shop or other online swap and sell groups.
Crockery:
Ceramic plates, bowls, mugs, saucers, pots and dishes made from earthenware or china are not recyclable. The presence of ceramics in a batch of your typical, recyclable glass will weaken the recycled product, which is why ceramics aren’t accepted.
Some recycling and salvage yards may accept ceramics as they can be crushed to be used for drainage systems and rock base for driveways. They can also be broken and then spun to smooth the edges for use as gravel.
You may also consider using broken ceramics and crockery to make a mosaic artwork.
If these are not viable options, then broken and chipped items should be wrapped and placed into your waste to landfill bin (red or blue lid).
If items are unbroken and in good condition please donate them to your local charity store or online through Freecycle, Freally, Facebook shop or other online swap and sell groups.
Light Globes:
Light globes cannot be recycled through your kerbside recycling bin. These items are considered hazardous and need to be recycled by a company with a specific recycling process. The mercury powder contained in globes is a significant contamination concern. You can recycle globes including fluorescent tubes, halogens and incandescent globes (excluding commercial globes or quantities) through the Backlight program at Mitre 10, Banner Hardware or True Value Hardware as well as IKEA stores. Simply take them into the store and place them in the light globe recycling box/bin. You can also ask your local lighting shop to see if they provide a recycling service. DeLights provide a fee for service for recycling globes. Unplug N’Drop located at 149 Holbrooks Road, Underdale also accept light globes.
Commercial business and industrial organisations will need to arrange a fee for service with their waste and recycling contractor or via the options listed below to ensure their fluoro tubes and globes are diverted from landfill and recycled: