Overzealous recyclers have been warned not to dump just any old rubbish at NSW recycling sites just outside the ACT border.
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So popular is the state's green scheme that people are now dumping every conceivable bit of waste at the sites. Some recyclers are even discarding the bags and boxes in which they brought their cashable bottles and cans.
Canberra and New South Wales have different systems under which they offer cash for returned cans and bottles, with the main Queanbeyan site inundated with legitimate returned items at a rate of 24,000 cans and bottles a day.
But the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) says people are also taking all kinds of non-recyclable stuff and dumping it there.
The overflow of non-recyclable rubbish has now become a significant problem, with waste overflowing across the pavement, particularly at the return machine in the Woolworths carpark in Queanbeyan.
An EPA spokeswoman said: "There have been some instances where rubbish has been left at the site and people are reminded that littering is not acceptable anywhere in NSW including at return points."
She added the authority was working with councils and the operator of the scheme to address the issue, including education, enhanced infrastructure and enforcement options.
"The Queanbeyan reverse vending machine is cleaned three times a day and has two bins available, and people can use these bins if there is room; or preferably they should take their rubbish away with them – they should not leave rubbish outside of the bins provided," the spokeswoman said.
Queanbeyan cleaners have become exasperated by the problem. A handwritten sign has been put up at the Woolworths site saying: "Warning Notice: Don't Leave Your Rubbish Here!"
The problem at Queanbeyan has been replicated at other sites across New South Wales. In countless small towns, there have been complaints that the popularity of recycling machines has led to an overflow of non-recycled rubbish.
The "Return and Earn" machines have been installed across the state over the past 14 months and seem to have transformed recycling, widening it into a money-making venture for less affluent people, for whom each ten-cent return makes a difference.
Where recycling might have been the "right thing to do" among middle-class people, recycling machines are now crowded with working-class people and children making ten cents an item.
The machine in Queanbeyan is invariably crowded with people with large plastic bags holding hundreds of bottles, cartons and cans (wine and milk bottles don't earn money). People bring truckloads.
In Queanbeyan, so great is the demand for items that there have been complaints of theft from household bins left outside homes.
In other parts of NSW, kids scour elderly people's homes and parks for cashable items.
There's also been a debate about whether the popular NSW scheme is outdoing the ACT one.
The best recent estimate was that each of the nine Canberra drop-off points received an average of 4500 cans and bottles a day - compared with the 24,000 a day at the Queanbeyan machine.
