Single use plastics are only used once and then thrown away or recycled.

Residents are saying "no" to the top seven single use plastics by using an alternative:

Here's a handy reference on what you can do locally.

The soft plastics recycling system ( plastic that can be scrunched in the hand) has been set up to collect plastics that aren't accepted in the yellow bin and would otherwise be landfilled.

There are several sites where people can deposit soft plastics:

Council admin centre on corner Dowling and Brown Streets

Dungog Library

Dungog waste facility

Shaws Bakery Clarence Town

Twin Rivers Café at East Gresford

Dungog IGA

Dungog Local Living growers markets in Dowling Street each Saturday morning.

Soft plastics are baled at the Dungog waste facility and transported for upcycling into street furniture and also road asphalt - see the cool blue bench outside the Visitor Information Centre in Dowling Street made from the equivalent of more than 15,000 plastic bags.

Soft plastics must be clean and emptied of any food scraps - if the plastic has been wrapped around meat the plastic cannot be recycled.

Lara Aged Care has a collection bin for the Envision project in its lobby.

You can also drop them at the Boomerang Bags working bees every second and fourth Thursday of the month and at the Dungog Local Living Growers markets each Saturday morning in Dowling Street.

The plastic lids and bread tags are used to make products such as artificial limbs.

Clean dry lids with the number 4 or 2 on them (usually milk or water lids).

Collected at Dungog Library. The metal component is recycled.

Collected at Dungog Council admin and Restart It in Dowling Street.

They are sent to Planet Ark for recycling.

Collected at Dungog Council admin and Dungog waste facility - recycled through Phonecycle

Dungog was the world's first takeaway coffee cup rescue town.

Cups and lids are collected at 20 locations (in distinctive cup sleeves) throughout the shire in partnership with "Closed Loop" and 7-11.

The operators of premises where cups are collected transport them to Dungog Council admin building where they are aggregated and transported to 7-11 at Heatherbrae.

The cups are taken in bulk to Closed Loop recycling plant in Victoria for upcycling into plastic based products such as carpark bumps and furniture.

Boomerang Bags and Bee Rapt both take donations of fabric to make reusable shopping bags and food covers.

You can buy both items at the Growers Market each Saturday morning at the CWA Hall in Dowling Street.

Dungog Community Centre has a street library.

Lovey's IGA has a community bookshelf

Clarence Town has a street library.

Vacy Public School is working on a project to have street libraries around their village.

For women in disadvantaged communities a bra is often unobtainable or unaffordable.

The Uplift Project collects bras - both new and second hand - and sends them wherever they have requests. For inquiries about drop off points in regional NSW contact Anna via email - nsw@upliftbras.org

Your local Op shops welcome your clean donations.

The Cuppa and Chat group which meets every Friday in the Anglican Church hall in Dowling Street collects used glasses to be recycled by the missions.

The Cuppa and Chat runs every Friday from 9.30am until 11.30am from February to December.