Recycling with an incentive may become a little easier with Maitland City Council moving ahead with plans to investigate the possibility of more Return and Earn machines across the city.
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Maitland has four reverse vending machines (RVMs) and one donation station.
These include three machines in Rutherford and Aberglasslyn and one in Thornton.
A council report said: "During the period December 1, 2017 to November 30, 2020, just under 54 million or 3360 tonnes of eligible containers were collected through the Return and Earn program in Maitland LGA".
TOMRA Collection Services is the contractor appointed by the NSW Government to establish Return Points for the program and council officers have commenced liaisons to find suitable locations for Return Points in both central and eastern parts of the Maitland LGA.
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"While it's not our program, I think everyone would be happy to see more points of access to it across our city," Labor councillor Ben Whiting said.
The report added TOMRA was keen to further expand the services throughout Maitland.
"TOMRA has indicated it is keen to expand the infrastructure in Maitland and had previously investigated two potential locations in central and East Maitland, however both sites were determined to be unsuitable for various reasons," the report read.
"Council staff have provided several potential locations for operational clearance by TOMRA and six sites, including one council owned site (the Visitor Information Centre site), has passed the initial desktop review.
"The council owned site as well as identified privately owned sites will then be audited for a range of operational requirements prior to liaison with land owners of preferred sites. Audits were scheduled to occur during July/August however have been impacted by COVID restrictions."
Officers will report back to council once liaison with land owners has been completed by TOMRA.
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