Lithgow’s Recycling Statistics

Managing Our Waste

Managing waste is one of the greatest environmental issues facing people today. Australia is the second largest producer of waste (per head) in the world! From the late 1900’s to the late 2000’s our waste disposal at landfill has nearly doubled from 22 million tonnes to 34 millions tonnes. Finding a new landfill site is a lengthy and laborious process involving extensive planning, gaining approvals, building community support and finally constructing the cells and opening the site. The process of finding a suitable landfill site and convincing the surrounding community of the benefits of having a new landfill constructed nearby can take years alone, which is why it is so important to reduce the amount of waste going to landfills to ensure their longevity. Many landfill sites in New South Wales are subject to Government charges (such as the Solid Waste Levy) for each tonne of waste disposed of in landfill.

From January 2014 (the first full year of the new contract) until the end of June 2019, residents of Lithgow City Council have recycled over 6,694 tonnes of material with their yellow lid recycling bins. The graph below illustrates Lithgow’s annual net recycling tonnage from January 2014 to June 2019. 

This has saved:

    • 18,447 cubic metres of landfill space;
    • Enough energy to power 516 households for an entire year;
    • The same amount of greenhouse gases that would be saved from permanently removing 807 cars from the road; and
    • 110,876 litres of water – which is enough to fill almost 44 Olympic sized swimming pools!