SOUTH East residents are being urged to ditch single-use plastic drink bottles and adopt more sustainable practices to help combat the amount of plastic entering recycling and waste channels.
The plea comes as Mount Gambier City Council has moved to have a new smart water fountain installed in the city through a SA Water initiative which aims to encourage residents to refill their water bottles.
Council hopes to install the fountain at the corner of Pick Avenue near the showgrounds, with the remotely monitored dispenser able to determine its own cleaning and maintenance schedule.
The move from council comes as the state takes on the challenge to reduce the 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emitted annually from transporting single use bottles.
Processing up to 7000 plastic bottles a day, Green Triangle Recyclers manager Ian Weber said the facility would see a decrease in numbers over the winter months before the predicted
summer surge.
“This time of year it does quiet down because people do not drink as much water from bottles, but we do still get quite a few in,” Mr Weber said.
“We see a lot come through in the 10 cent refunds rather than kerbside, it would almost be in the millions.”
Known as PET bottles because they are made from a thermoplastic polymer resin of polyester, the material is often used for plastic bottles and food containers for its strength and durability.
While praising residents’ recycling uptake, Mr Weber said the facility’s main issues come from contamination of kerbside rubbish.
“We have around a 30pc contamination rate here which comes from people thinking they are doing the right thing but are doing the opposite,” he said.
“We are still getting things like dirty nappies and blankets – it is not feasible.
“It is a large problem – our staff here hand pick out every piece of waste, which takes up around 30pc of our labor wages,” he said.
“Yet people are recycling PET bottles fine, but anything like shampoo bottles we can get rid of for them even if we do not sell them.”
SA Water yesterday confirmed it was in talks with City Council and Tatiara District Council to install smart water fountains in both Mount Gambier and Keith.
With around 30 already active across the state, the smart fountains allow water use to be remotely monitored, generating cleaning and maintenance schedules and feature built-in solar lighting.
City Council engineering, design and contracts manager Daryl Morgan said the local government body was currently looking at installing other public water fountains around Mount Gambier.
“Council recently installed one at the Frew Park parking area,” Mr Morgan said.
The engineering manager said council hopes to add additional fountains around the Blue Lake precinct but have had difficulty surrounding water mains access.
“When the opportunity is provided, City Council is eager to add more drinking fountains around town also,” Mr Morgan said.
