Waste challenge taken on by this close Mangerton street

They are taking on the two-week Great Aussie Waste Challenge, where participants measure their landfill output then spend two weeks working to reduce their red lid bin output.

Resident Jenae Johnston tried it herself before spreading the word.

"I did the challenge and I thought I was recycling pretty well - until I realised all the tips and tricks that I found I was missing out on ... and the consequences this has at the recycling plants and ultimately how it affects landfill as well," Ms Johnston said.

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"I know that in my family, everyone wasn't entirely on board, so I thought it's probably the case with other families on the street - there's often one person in the family who is really gung-ho about climate change and the environment, and the others are more like 'oh, it's not going to happen to us'.

"I thought it would be good to spread it out, and the more people who recycle better, the less in our landfill."

Her neighbourhood took it on.

"We've got a really great street, a tight community," she said. "We do Anzac Day dawn service, Christmas street parties, and we have a street Facebook page, which made it easier to organise in lockdown.

"It's not a competition ... at the start of the challenge you do a survey which takes 30 seconds to review how much you're filling up your red bin. Then at the end of the challenge there's another survey to assess how much you reduced going into your red bin, and what you learned during the challenge."

More widely, the Great Aussie Waste Challenge Facebook page is run by an Illawarra mum called Ginger Rogers who wants to share "practical environmentalism" that people can use in their daily lives.

"The videos, posts and ideas aim to make easy and lasting changes to reduce volumes to landfill, improve recycling habits and knowledge and help the community drive to a smaller environmental footprint," Ms Rogers says on the page.

Ms Johnston said the Food Organics, Garden Organics (FOGO) collection in Wollongong had opened up more possibilities for reducing waste.

"There's a lot more that can go in FOGO, especially paper and cardboard," she said. "You can include paper contaminated by food - if you go to the local cafe and buy a donut and there's grease all over the paper, you can't put that in the recycling but you can put it into FOGO."

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