THE community is being encouraged to “Love Where You Live – Keep Douglas Clean & Green” by embracing National Recycling Week, which officially kicked off yesterday.

Douglas Shire Mayor Julia Leu said was proud to support Planet Ark’s National Recycling Week, which highlights the importance of recycling correctly.

“There is still a significant amount of confusion when it comes to appropriately disposing of plastics, particularly soft plastics like bread, pasta, cereal and lolly bags,” Leu said.

“Many people believe they are doing the right thing by throwing their soft plastic in the kerbside recycling bin, but once it reaches the recycling facilities, it can become tangled in the machinery, making the process less efficient.”

While small household recyclable items can be put in yellow-lid recycling bins, larger items such as old washing machines, electronic waste, gas cylinders and many other items can be taken to Council’s transfer stations, often for free or a small fee.

Larger recyclable items currently accepted free of charge at transfer stations in the Douglas Shire include scrap metal, whitegoods, car batteries, non-commercial volumes of paint, chemicals, solvents and waste oil less than 25 litres.

“Electronic waste such as TVs, computers and keyboards can also be taken to Killaloe Transfer Station for recycling free of charge,” Leu said.

“On occasion, washing machines and scrap metal are illegally dumped in our beautiful Shire and there is really no excuse for this when residents can take these items to a transfer station for free.”

Leu said Council also had MobileMuster collection points at the Mossman Administration Building, the Mossman Library and the Douglas Library Kiosk where people can recycle their old mobile phones and accessories.

For more information about what can and can’t be recycled at transfer stations see the Douglas Shire website.