Georges River Council: E-waste and Extras Community Recycling

Georges River Council introduced recycling for tricky items, including child car seats, expanded polystyrene and hard plastics at their quarterly e-waste events.

In this case study:

• Background
• Key activities
• Collaborators
• Outcomes
• Capacity for change
• Innovation elements
• Lessons learned

Background

Georges River Council was awarded $43,815 by the NSW EPA in round one of the Local Government Waste Solutions Fund for the project E-waste and Extras Community Recycling to collect hard plastics, expanded polystyrene (EPS), child car seats and bulky cardboard.

Hard plastics were found to be one of the largest contaminants of kerbside recycling bins in the 2019 SSROC kerbside audit. Products such as plastic plant pots, outdoor plastics chairs, storage bins, kids shell swimming pools and laundry baskets can’t be recycled through the yellow bin, however technology advances since 2019 mean that these materials can now be recycled when source separated for processing.

EPS recycling rates in Australia remain very low at approximately 29% with over 47,000 tonnes ending up in landfill each year (National Waste Report 2018).  

Child car seats are bulky items with short lifespans and are comprised of multiple materials, including hard plastics and textiles, of which 80% can be recovered. An estimated 200,000 child car seats are disposed of each year in Australia and this product category had been included on the Minister’s Priority List by the Australian Government in 2022-23.

Bulky cardboard is one of the top 5 items disposed of by multi-unit dwellings in council clean-ups (SSROC bulky waste audit 2023) and generates greenhouse gas emissions when disposed to landfill. 

Key activities

Project activities started in July 2023 and concluded in August 2024. During that time Council:

• worked with Sircel to determine which hard plastics were in scope. Items had to align with the contractor’s processing capabilities and be suitable to offer to the community. Car bumpers, plastic hangars, items with bits of metal, embedded batteries or constructed from multiple plastic types (such as children’s toys) were excluded due to challenges in processing or promotion.
• promoted the expanded events with the new acceptable items across social media and council communications channels
• worked with collection partners to plan equipment, site set up and staffing to manage new recycling streams for 5 community events
• explored pathways for child car seat decommissioning and recycling, including with Council’s staff, and then by partnering with BabySafe Child Restraints
• collaborated with Bathurst Regional Council and childcare centres to establish additional car safety seat drop off points.

Collaborators

• BabySafe Child Restraints provided a process and facility to trial the recycling of car seats. BabySafe also connected Georges River Council with other organisations that were trying to recycle car seats.
• Textile Recyclers Australia collected, cleaned, and recycled the fabric components of the car seats.
• Sircel undertook the collection and recycling of EPS, hard plastics and large cardboard.

Outcomes

During the 13-month project period, and 5 drop off events, Council collected and recycled:

• 3.7 tonnes of hard plastic (including from child car seats)
• 29 cubic meters of EPS
• 2.4 tonnes of cardboard
• 296 child car seats (includes Georges River Council events as well as collection via Bathurst Regional Council, childcare centres drop points and other not-for-profit organisations)

The project achieved an 85% average recovery rate for plastic and metals from the child safety seats and Council was able to remove and recycle 75kgs of textiles.

Council monitored community participation during the project period and observed a 27% increase in attendance at drop-off events from the previous year.

The events provided data on what quantities could be collected and what barriers and benefits Council might face in the future with the collection and processing of not only the target items, but any additional tricky items. As a result of the successful trial, Council has committed to continue to accept EPS, hard plastics, and cardboards at their events beyond the grant period and car seats. If budget allows, Council will begin to take end of life textiles and child car seats as standard from 1 July 2025.

Capacity for change

Residents were empowered to reduce their waste and impact on the environment through a convenient and accessible option to recycle more types of household waste.

Georges River Council was one of the first councils to collect hard plastics (polypropylene) and child car seats at events. Since the project began, several NSW councils have reached out to discuss Council’s experience adding new collection streams. Knowledge sharing may support other councils to make an informed decision about if they should include these items in drop off events.

Council was able to help Bathurst Regional Council to hold a child car seat collection event and increase diversion from landfill.

Innovation elements

Council does not currently have a Community Recycling Centre, however was able to expand tricky waste collections by leveraging an existing community recycling drop off event. The new services support the reframing of tricky wastes as having value and being worth the effort to drop off for recycling.

Council showed leadership by investigating partnerships and pathways for collecting and decommissioning end of life child car seats, leading to improved understanding of the economics, stakeholders and recovery considerations for this bulky waste stream.

Lessons learned

Many new material streams could be readily integrated into Council collection events

Collecting and recycling hard plastics, cardboard and EPS were straightforward, as there are established businesses, facilities and end markets for these items. Costs were lower than anticipated where one supplier was able to collect and recycle multiple materials streams.

Residents require education for new material streams

While residents were generally engaged and interested in recycling new material streams, some residents still brought out of scope items. It is important to promote not only the type of items being accepted but also the condition required to enable recovery. Clean items are essential, e.g. no tape on cardboard, clean EPS, and clean textiles for baby seats. Discussions with collection and recovery partners help to clarify requirements and avoid potential additional costs or poorer recovery outcomes.

There was sometimes confusion about the difference between EPS and foam, including by Council event staff. Ongoing education will be essential to avoid excess of general waste brought to the event by residents.

Residents often did not separate items for recycling before arriving to the events and Council’s hook bins were quite spaced out, which meant often there were piles of additional items sitting by the bins that needed to be moved to the correct bin. A couple of additional workers on the day were used to move the extra items to their designated hook bin.

Recycling child car seats required collaborative problem solving

Child car seats were included on the Minister's Priority List 2023-24 with the Australian Government indicating that the industry should demonstrate improved and measurable product stewardship through a range of suggested approaches. The establishment of a national scheme has not eventuated and the key recycling partner in Commonwealth trials, SeatCare, was no longer in operation at the time the grant project started. As a result, Council was unable to offer recycling for this stream initially in the grant period until a new solution could be established.

Because there aren’t established  ways to recycle child car seats, Council first tried taking them apart using its own staff and recycling components using existing recycling contracts. This helped them understand how long the process takes and how much it costs. The design and construction of car seats vary a lot, even between models from the same brand, so disassembly by hand took between 30 and 75 minutes. Mechanics used special tools to separate the parts. Some components, like belt buckles and ISOFIX anchors, were hard to remove because the metal and plastic were tightly joined. Rivets moulded into plastic were the most difficult to separate. Council learned that textiles from the car seats were often soiled and considered a biohazard unless laundered. An existing partnership with Textile Recyclers Australia enabled Council to recycle the fabric, once laundered.

Council then partnered with Robert Mesite from BabySafe Child Restraints who was able to conduct extensive research and testing to better understand car seat construction and how to dismantle them efficiently. Car seats are comprised of 4 main plastic types - 2 that could be processed together and sold to plastic recyclers, and 2 others for which there was limited market demand. BabySafe Child Restraints persisted to find end-users for the materials during the project.