Push to encourage small changes to household recycling habits could have bigger benefits

Territory and Municipal Services Minister Shane Rattenbury said small changes to household recycling habits were key.

"Kids are great ambassadors. They often help their parents get the recycling right," he said.

"When the lids are left on, the sorting machinery can sometimes incorrectly read a container as being full and redirect it to landfill, rather than sending it to be recycled.

"The containers can be compressed more, and it also means that the machines sort the containers more effectively."

There were also long-term economic and environmental benefits for the ACT, which has some of the best recycling practices in Australia.

"Landfill is a very expensive option and there's a significant cost to actually building the landfill cells and then continue to operate them," Mr Rattenbury said.

"Many of those [recycled] materials are then on-sold by the ACT government, so there's a revenue there."

About 75 per cent of Canberra's waste was recovered in 2010-11 according to an audit that year, and Mr Rattenbury hoped to see that increase.

"Canberrans are great recyclers, we're one of the leading areas in Australia for our recycling efforts, so people are doing a great job," he said.

"Our recycling rates here in the ACT are very effective, but it's about seeking those little improvements along the way."

He said improving recycling rates was predominantly about awareness of what could and could not be recycled in households.

"I did a quick snap poll around the people I knew and a lot of people thought you had to leave the lids on," he said.

Many household products are recyclable, however some common items including plastic bags, chip packets and cling wrap, are not.

Mr Rattenbury was confident the campaign would yield positive results.

"I think it will be very easy to measure if this campaign does have an impact, we'll obviously see it in the recycling stream," he said.