Five Victorian councils will share in $1.25 million to improve the collection, separation and recovery of organic waste and glass from kerbside recycling.
Funding from Sustainability Victoria will help the Macedon Ranges Shire Council, Maribyrnong City Council, Surf Coast Shire Council, Warrnambool City Council and Yarra City Council expand and improve their kerbside collection systems. In total these five councils will be able to reduce waste to landfill by an extra 28,000 tonnes of organic material and 4,600 tonnes of glass.
Organic waste is a resource
With almost half the contents of a household garbage bin being food or garden waste, there is enormous opportunity to collect and reprocess this resource that will improve the value of soils in agricultural production systems.
Surf Coast Shire Council have been trialling using existing garden bins to also collect food waste across 3,000 households in Anglesea, which has seen a significant 24 per cent reduction in waste being sent to landfill.
Organic waste that is sent to landfill breaks down creating greenhouse gases, including methane and by capturing food scraps and garden clipping from households in separate bins, this valuable material can be composted and used to improve soil.
Both Warrnambool City Council and Yarra City Council have received grants to separate glass from the kerbside commingle recycling bin. Glass creates problems for recycling as it often breaks and contaminates the plastics and paper, making these harder to recycle.
Separating glass items from the commingle kerbside recyclables means glass will be recovered as a high-quality product that can be used as an alternative to our natural resources in construction activities such as building roads.
Warrnambool Shire Council received overwhelming public support for a separate recycling bin for glass. The Warrnambool community want to recycle and keep recycled resources local. A separate glass bin allows glass to be recycled locally and creates jobs.
About the funding
The Resource Recovery Infrastructure Fund supports the development of infrastructure projects that will improve the collection, sorting, recycling and processing of waste.
Valued at approximately $26 million, the funding program has allocated over $22 million to 70 infrastructure projects in metropolitan and regional Victoria since 2017.
.
