At the start of Keep Australia Beautiful Week Aug 25-31, spare a thought for the public events and how many recyclable packaging materials are disposed of in waste?

The National Packaging Covenant (Covenant) is a unique initiative between government and industry groups to stop packaging waste ending up in landfill.

Covenant, CEO, Ed Cordner says although recycling at home is an everyday event for most Australians more needs to be done to recycle away from home.

"Research shows most Australians would like to recycle away from home, but more bins, collection systems and education programs are needed," Mr Cordner said.

To proactively address this, the Queensland EPA successfully applied to the National Packaging Covenant for funding, worth a combined total of $2 million, to place recycle bins at public events such as rock concerts, shopping centres and sports venues across the state over the next two years.

Mr Cordner said this is being run in conjunction with an education and public awareness program.

Mr Cordner said Queenslanders currently recycle more than 245,000 tonnes of packaging material, however a further 50% of recyclable material is generated away from home.

"The new bins will increase the amount of material recycled from public places in Queensland and go a long way towards helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Our aim is to empower people to do the right thing and place their waste in the right bin," Mr Cordner said.

Mr Cordner said education was important so people did not put food scraps in recycling bins and contaminate the materials. "The new bins are clearly signed and show which materials to put in which bin and include the message to Do the right thing, use the right bin."

Mr Cordner said the EPA was supported by event organisers and venue managers and he hoped Queensland's project success would encourage other states to do the same.

The Packaging Stewardship Forum contributed $35,000 towards the project for the purchasing of bin caps which were used at the recent EkkA Festival, encouraging all to Do the Right Thing and Use the Right Bin. The event attracted up to 500,000 people and the new bins diverted nearly 60 tonnes of recyclable packaging materials from landfill.