After being collected from the kerb by contractors, the bins are brought to Kurrajong Recyclers, where they’re processed and packaged up to one day be turned into new bins.

Kurrajong Recyclers manager Tim Macgillycuddy said about 95 per cent of the bins were able to be recycled.

“It’s only the wheels we can’t process, they’re made out of a mixed plastic,” Mr Macgillycuddy said. “The axles are removed and sent to Sims Metal Management and then we separate the lids and sort them all according to colour. They’ll eventually be sent to Mastec to be turned into new bins.”

Batches of bins are dumped into an enormous plastic shredder, which can tear through five tonnes of bins an hour, reducing them to small chunks that are then bagged up for shipping. The chunks will eventually be broken down into small pellets that can then be used in moulds to make new products.

However, the scale of the bin collection is bigger than even Kurrajong can keep up with on a daily basis. They process about 1000 bins every day while council contractors collect 3000, meaning the recycling effort will continue long after the old bins disappear from suburban streets. 

In a large paddock next to the recycling plant is a field Mr Macgillycuddy refers to as “the graveyard”. Thousands of bins, sorted by colour, lay awaiting their fate.

Caroline Angel, Wagga City Council’s director of commercial operations, rubbished rumours circulating on social media that council was simply dumping the old bins in landfill.

“The rumours circulating about the old kerbside bins being flattened and sent to landfill and nothing is being recycled are completely untrue and unfounded,” Ms Angel said. “The bins, along with the steel axle are being recycled. The wheels, which are a mixed material and not recyclable, are being sent to landfill by the contractor.”

Mr Macgillycuddy said it was a big job, but the recycling effort would “close the loop” for the old bins, which would become another city’s new bins one day.