Residents have saved more than 3,000 tonnes of waste from going landfill as Horsham Rural City Council marked the first year since the introduction of the new four-bin waste services.
Chief Executive Officer Sunil Bhalla said that since the four-bin services were introduced in April 2023, the initiative had effectively diverted an average of 250 tonnes of organics per month and 10 tonnes of glass per month from ending up buried at the Dooen landfill.
“That equates to about 300 truck loads or just under half the amount of waste being trucked to Dooen Landfill compared to before the kerbside collection changes,” he said.
“That is a terrific result for our community because it is not only better for the environment, but it helps us avoid significant future cost increases that would have otherwise been imposed on Council and ratepayers,” Mr Bhalla said.
Landfill diversion is particularly important for regional communities after the Victorian Government again lifted the cost of its landfill levies, which councils have to pass on to ratepayers.
Mr Bhalla expressed his appreciation for the active participation of residents and their outstanding efforts in maintaining low contamination rates in each of their bins.
“With contamination rates consistently below other Councils, it is evident that almost everyone is using their FOGO (food and organic waste) bins the right way.
“As part of the change, we’ve all had to adjust to fortnightly collections for our general waste and we understand that has been a challenge for some people in our community.
“We thank all those who have done their best to adapt and understood that maintaining weekly collections would have cost residents more in annual fees, which is what our surveys showed the majority of people wanted to avoid.
“We are working to help the community reduce the amount of waste going to landfill but every household has an important role to play and the statistics show just how much can be achieved when we all work together,” Mr Bhalla said.
