More than 40,000 lime green bins will start being delivered to urban Bendigo and Marong households from next week.
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The roll out is the next step toward the City of Greater Bendigo’s new fortnightly organic waste collection which kicks off on September 5. City waste services manager Natasza Purser said the bin delivery would take about four weeks to complete.
“In addition to a new organics bin each household will also receive a kitchen caddy, a one year supply of compostable caddy liners, collection calendar and an information guide to the city’s organic, recycling and waste services,” Mrs Purser said.
“When the new organics service commences residents will be able to dispose of all cooked and uncooked food scraps including vegetable peelings, teabags, coffee grounds, paper towel, tissues, fish, cooked foods, bones, meat and garden waste including prunings, clippings, sticks, weeds and flowers in the neworganics bin.
“We expect that about 12,000 tonnes of organic waste, which is equivalent to approximately 1,500 full garbage trucks, will be saved from going to landfill and instead be recycled into reusable compost each year for use on parks and gardens.
“Organic material rotting in landfill is the biggest cause of methane and other dangerous greenhouse gases so this is a good outcome for the environment and the smart and right thing to do.”
Mrs Purser said the service resulted from the council’s waste and resource management strategy, adopted in 2014, which identified food in the garbage stream as a key consideration, with 50 per cent of waste found to be organic.
She said the first organics collection will take place on the same day that residents normally put out their waste bins but on the opposite week to their recycling bin collection.
“This means the first organic collection will take place for some households during the week commencing September 5 but for others it won’t take place until the following week commencing September 12,” Mrs Purser said.
“The collection calendar delivered with your new bin will show the week your organics bin is due for collection and residents should start putting their organic waste in their new organics bin up to two weeks before their first collection is due.
“The city understands that people living in flats, units and smaller homes may not need a large 240 litre bin and if this is the case they can contact council and request to have a smaller 140 litre bin delivered once the service is introduced in September.”
The service will see a $63 increase in rates.
Mrs Purser said the service was compulsory and there was no option to opt out, but residents who managed organics on their own property could apply for an exemption.
The new service is being delivered in partnership with the State Government through Sustainability Victoria (SV).
SV Chief Executive Officer Stan Krpan said SV will have supported more than 10 regional and rural councils to introduce new or expanded kerbside organic collection services by the end of the year.
“This means more than 140,000 additional households across Victoria will have access to kerbside organics collection services by the end of this year,” Mr Krpan said.