A young woman has called recycling in Australia ‘a scam’ after she took a video of local garbage collections ‘mishandling’ waste.
The video shows garbage men from Cumberland Council in western Sydney placing both recycling and general waste in the back of the same garbage truck on February 10.
The video posted to TikTok by Krish Waje labels the council’s handling of recycling ‘appalling’.
A video of garbage men from Cumberland Council in Sydney mixing recycling with general waste has caused one woman to decide recycling is a scam
Ms Waje claims this isn’t the first time she’s caught the garbage men mixing waste.
‘I’ve seen them do it before, it’s just the first time I’ve seen them do it on camera,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
She then says that since her video has been put up she understands that Australia’s recycling infrastructure has recently diminished since it stopped sending waste overseas.
‘What makes me really upset with all of this is that the council is still putting up an act,’ she continued.
‘[The council] are still making us think that we’re recycling, seperate our recycling all for it to just go into the same bin.’
In the clip the garbage men are unfazed as they place cardboard and other recycling on top of general waste such as full garbage bags.
Cumberland Council states on its website that constituents are not to use recycling bins for plastic bags, food waste or garbage.
‘When incorrect items are placed in your yellow lid recycling bin it contaminates the collection and recovery of recycling,’ its website states.
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‘This means that high loads of contaminated recycling bins may get sent to landfill, wasting your recycling efforts.’
The council website states that constituents must not mix both general and recycling trash as it ‘contaminates’ the recycling and then must be placed in landfill
‘They’re literally putting the red bin and the yellow bin in the same f***ing pick-up bin,’ Ms Waje said in the video.
‘What is the point of us separating out bins… when it just all goes in the same bin.
‘We think that we’re recycling, we’re consciously recycling. But it’s not being recycled.’
TikTok users were divided on the young woman’s post.
‘Also the council can fine us for not separating our waste. Just so that they can do this lol,’ one user wrote.
‘Example of disconnect with top down policies. Virtue signal policies, like banning plastic straws, without any real infrastructure, so people pretend,’ another commented on local government.
‘Its not a scam, it’s just people not doing their job properly,’ one user wrote, defending the council.
Another user commented on the recycling industry: ‘We don’t have the infrastructure in place to recycle everything.’
‘Lots of plastic/glass is stored in warehouses and eventually goes to landfill.’
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Cumberland Council for comment.
