Ground-breaking phone app set to reduce recycling confusion

A new mobile
phone app has been launched nationally to help households and businesses work
out which of their waste items can be recycled.

As well as providing
localised information on what items can be recycled and where, the Recycle Mate
app allows users to photograph an item and check it against a catalogue to see it
can be recycled in their local council bin system or elsewhere.

There are already
several recycling phone apps available in Australia, including Brisbane Bin and
Recycling, Recycle Right (used in Western Australia), and RecycleSmart.

However, according to Recycle Mate’s developer, Adaptation Environmental Support, the new app’s technology is the next step, enabling it to learn what different pieces of waste look like and are called.

Adaptation managing
director Lara Barclay said: “Every time you search for a word or take a photo,
the app collects the data and we feed that back in.”

She says
Recycle Mate has a much bigger scope than other community-driven recycling apps
and already has data on more than 4000 waste items.

A Recycle
Mate national data hub has also been developed to assist recycling stakeholders
to check and modify their recycling information in real-time, as both new
recycling capabilities and new product materials get introduced. 

Between 10 and 15 percent of items put in household recycling bins are not actually recyclable, which can contaminate loads of recyclable items and result in more waste going to landfill.

Consumer awareness as to how to best sort each item of used packaging is fundamental to achieving low kerbside contamination rates, and that end, ALGA supports and encourages educational programs that allow and encourage consumers to do the right thing.

Recycle
Mate was launched for testing and development in NSW in 2019 – and is an
initiative of the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) and financially
supported by the federal government’s Environment Restoration Fund and the NSW
Environment Protection Authority’s Waste Less Recycle More initiative.

To learn
more about Recycle Mate and the RM Hub, contact Lara Barclay
lara@adaptation.net.au