Annual bin audits

The City of Gosnells reviews the contents of a selection of residential general waste and recycling bins each year, as part of its ongoing commitment to improve waste management and recycling processes.

By auditing the contents of residents' general waste and recycling bins, the City can identify whether unsuitable items are being placed in bins. With this information, the City is able to develop communications and education strategies to help the community understand which items belong in each bin, and which items should be disposed of in other ways.

The overall aim is to reduce the volume of waste being sent to landfill and to help local residents to recycle effectively. This process also identifies items that should be disposed of in other ways, such as in the recycling hubs at City of Gosnells libraries and the Civic Centre, in specialised collection areas or through battery retailers’ retrieval points.

Residents concerned about privacy relating to printed documents (such as bank statements, bills etc) should shred this paperwork before placing it in their waste bin at any time of the year – not only during the audit.

Some of the information collected through the audit process includes:

• Details of the types of items placed in waste and recycling bins, and the volume of those items
• Number of items collected that are eligible to be collected under the Container Deposit Scheme (Containers for Change)
• Levels of recyclable items in the general waste bins
• Contamination and recovery rates in recycling

The following Frequently Asked Questions provide more details of exactly what’s involved in the audit process.

Will the City let me know if they are going to audit my waste and recycling bins?

The waste and recycling bin audits are undertaken without notice, to ensure the information collected by the City accurately reflects local residents’ waste disposal and recycling habits. If we told people when an audit would be happening, they might change their habits, and this would provide false results.

Exactly how are the contents of the waste and recycling bins audited?

The contents of all general waste bins audited are combined in a large pile and sifted through by contractors, who record statistics relating to the items in the bins. The same process is used for the contents of recycling bins. The audit company provides a detailed report to the City after the information they collected has been reviewed and assessed.

What happens to the waste and recycling after it has been audited?

The audited waste and recycling material will be sorted into appropriate piles and disposed of through the City’s regular disposal processes.