Think Yellow in 2025… Countdown Starts with New Kerbside Waste and Recycling Contract

Cassowary Coast residents are being asked to ‘Think Yellow’ as the countdown to yellow-lidded bins for kerbside recycling in 2025 has officially started.

From Monday 5 August, Queensland-based, family-owned company JJ’s Waste & Recycling will take over the region’s kerbside waste collection.

Mayor Teresa Millwood gave the trucks her nod of approval this week at an unveiling of the freshly branded fleet labelled ‘Think Yellow’, saying the new contract signals the commencement of Council’s transition to best practice waste management.

“We’re counting down to the start of our new kerbside recycling collection service which is due to commence in March 2025,” Mayor Millwood said.

“Including recycling in general household collections will be a significant milestone in the region’s future of waste and resource recovery management.

“The new system will replace Council’s current ‘wet waste’ and ‘dry waste’ disposal to protect our precious environment, bring us in line with neighbouring Councils, and meet government targets to reduce waste and increase recycling.”

The Queensland Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy targets for 2050 include:

•           25% reduction in household waste

•           90% of waste is recovered and does not go to landfill

•           75% recycling rates across all waste types.

As part of the new resource recovery and recycling program, Cassowary Coast Regional Council is partnering with Cairns Regional Council to utilise the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) for yellow lidded ‘recycling’ bin content deposits. 

Mayor Millwood said that by doing so Council will bypass the need to construct its own Cassowary Coast facility.

“We’ll be tapping into the MRF’s existing global commodity markets to sell our recycled material, offsetting Council costs for capital and operational expenditure in delivery of this service.”

General Manager for JJ’s Waste, David Colvin said they were pleased to recruit drivers for the current Cassowary Coast kerbside waste service to assist in continuity of services across the region.

“We value the experience of these drivers, and their local knowledge will be invaluable in delivering the new contract with Cassowary Coast Regional Council,” Mr Colvin said.

“Combined with new technology of our in-vehicle system j-Track® and customer service Council Portal system we’re gearing up to drive a seamless transition for Cassowary Coast residents.”

JJ’s Waste’s j-Track® in-vehicle system provides drivers with alerts if it recognises that a street or segment has been missed.  And their Council Portal allows customer service teams to monitor collection services as they happen.

“As we transition to kerbside recycling in 2025, additional technology will be utilised enabling us to proactively detect possible contamination from non-recyclables in yellow-lidded bins,” Mr Colvin said.

“This information will greatly assist the Cassowary Coast in targeting their education campaign, and we look forward to this new partnership.”

From Monday, Cassowary Coast residents will see the new waste collection vehicles on roads, but for now there will be little change to the existing collection routine which will continue on the same days as the current schedule, with some minor adjustments to collection times.

There will be two separate vehicles servicing resident’s bins as Council prepares for the transition to recycling next year. Residents are advised to continue to present their bins at the kerbside the evening before their scheduled collection day, but by no later than 6am on the day of collection.

The Cassowary Coast ‘Think Yellow’ recycling education campaign will soon be launched, with all community members encouraged to sign up to Council’s E-News at Register | Your Say Cassowary Coast to receive updates straight to their inbox. 

See Council’s FAQs about kerbside recycling at https://www.cassowarycoast.qld.gov.au/domestic-waste-collection-services .

For further information contact Council at 1300 763 903 or email enquiries@cassowarycoast.qld.gov.au.

Photo caption: JJ's Waste General Manager David Colvin with Mayor Teresa Millwood at the unveiling of Council's new waste collection trucks

 

Photo caption: JJ's Waste unveils Cassowary Coast's new kerbside collection trucks