The common misconception with the yellow lid recycling bin is that "everything ends up in the same place".
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But Cleanway is hoping public tours of its Albury Material Recovery Facility (MRF) will help refocus the community on the importance of recycling this National Recycling Week and to bust that myth.
The MRF, which opened in September 2017, services the six local municipal contracts including; Albury, Wodonga, Indigo, Federation, Greater Hume and Alpine shires, taking in kerbside recycling from around 70,000 households.
And despite the factory having only an eight per cent contamination rate branch manager David Collins said more can be done.
"Considering where we started with Cleanaway in 1998, contamination now is very good, nappies used to be a big issue in recycling but now we would rarely spot a nappy," he said.
"The education program is the most important aspect to what we do but there is the percentage of people that don't do the right thing and that is about more education and a bit of social change.
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"When you have a look at it we have a three-bin system and if everyone uses them correctly it works really well."
Operations manager Craig Dougherty said the most common contamination product in recycling is soft plastics.
"Not just plastic bags but cling wrap and plastic wraps that people are too lazy to take off the cardboard or recyclable material," he said.
"Coffee cups are another big thing, people think they are recyclable but they aren't, same thing with Macca's and Hungry Jacks soft drink cups."
The MRF has a 12-person team who processes an average of 50 tonnes per day sorting and separating the materials using a combination of optical sorting technology, air classifiers, mechanical sorting and manual sorting.
The MRF sorts recycling into six categories; glass, cardboard, paper, steel tins and cans, hard plastics and aluminium.
Once the material is separated and sorted, it is processed to be turned into new products and material.
Glass from the Albury MRF is used by a local company to be used in construction and road base.
Mr Dougherty said the Halve Waste campaign is about reducing and reusing before recycling.
"Let's start thinking about all those single-use plastics that just go in the bin as soon as you get home and try and start there," he said.
"We could be at a one per cent contamination rate if people just took the time to think about what they recycle."
The public are encouraged to register for a tour of the Albury MRF this week.
For more information and to register visit the Halve Waste Facebook page.