Green bin contamination drops to less than 1%

During May and June Strathbogie residents achieved an all-time record with contamination levels dropping below one per cent.

It is the first time the average contamination rate has dropped below one per cent.

Strathbogie Shire Mayor Councillor Amanda McClaren said Council tracked contamination rates each month and thought this milestone was great news to share with the community.

“For the first five months of this year our green bin contamination rate has been significantly lower than it has been at the same time in previous years,” Cr McClaren said.

“Then the month of May saw a new personal best for Strathbogie Shire when we dropped below one per cent for the first time.

“This awesome effort was continued into June when we also achieved a contamination rate of less than one per cent.”

She congratulated locals for their efforts to “Do the Right Bin”.

“But now is not the time to slack off,” she said.

“Soft plastic is still the biggest contaminate in our Green Bins and unfortunately even at these very small rates it is hard to sort from the compost and sometimes even creeps in, which reduces the quality of the final compost product.

“Please take extra care to remove all plastics from your food scraps and garden waste and never place plastic bags into your green bag.

“Only our purple bags are suitable as they are compostable to Australian Standard 4736-2006 and the sorters know what to look out for.”

The table below shows contamination rates from January 2018.