Mapleton offers local solution for those trickier recyclables

We’re pretty good at putting our used glass and plastic containers, paper and card into the dedicated bin for kerbside collection. But did you know other ‘rubbish’ around the home can also be recycled — just not via that yellow-lidded bin? How? The answer lies up in Mapleton.

Spearheaded by locals determined to keep ‘valuable trash’ out of landfill, the verandah of the Mapleton Library Community Centre has become a drop-off point for five trickier recyclables.

These include blister packs, plastic drink bottle lids, pens, toothbrushes and plastic bread tags. 

The blister packs that medication comes in are troublesome for standard recycling streams due to the combination of plastic and foil. Fortunately, a local recycling company has the facilities to melt down the aluminium and process the plastic into pellets, ready to be turned into new products. 

“We are currently filling our 17th large black plastic bag of blister packs,” says Nita Lester, president of the Mapleton Library Community Centre. “With word spreading about our collection point, packs are coming in from Maleny right through to Nambour and it doesn’t take long to fill a bag.”

Toothbrushes — both manual and electric — and pens are also difficult to recycle because of their complex mix of materials. But they pose no problem for specialised recycling companies, so the Centre has containers set aside to collect these too. Even plastic drink bottle lids and bread tags have their own value and are sorted by colour by volunteers before heading off for their new life. 

“We’ve lost count of how many bags of those we’ve filled,” said Helen, a community volunteer. “We do ask that people don’t include the plastic rings they’re usually attached to though. They’re not accepted for recycling and should be cut up to safeguard wildlife and disposed of in regular bins.”

Once all the ‘trash treasure’ has been packed up by the Centre’s dedicated volunteers, a couple of community members take it to recycling outlets on the Sunshine Coast. “It’s wonderful that so many people put their hands up to help,” says Nita. “Every bit of recycling helps reduce landfill and the need for environmentally costly material extraction like mining and logging.”

While you’re sorting out hard-to-recycle items to drop off, check your cupboards and drawers for any unwanted spectacles and mobile phones too. Spectacles go to the local Blackall Range Lions Club for offshore communities in need and mobiles are donated to DV Safe Phone for domestic violence victims in Australia.

Simply bring it all to the Mapleton Library Community Centre, place it in the containers on the verandah and the volunteers will take it from there. Easy, impactful, and good for the planet.

Mapleton Community Library volunteers Lenore Tonks (left) and Sharn Donnison with some of the pens and bottle tops that have been collected for recycling.