New Surf Coast Shire waste service to launch in July

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Surf Coast Shire Council is changing the kerbside waste service for all residents, with the new collection scheduled to start 6 July 2020. From that date, everyone will separate their household waste into four bins.

Council will deliver a new purple-lid bin to each property to be used for glass, which will no longer be accepted in yellow-lid mixed recycling bins.

Rural residents who use Council’s kerbside waste collection service will also receive a green organics bin before the new service starts. Urban properties already have the green organics bins with the current service.

Residents will start putting all food scraps into their green organics bins along with garden clippings, a service known as Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO). The FOGO service accepts any food scraps including fruit and vegetables, meat, seafood, dairy, bread, and bones. Council will provide residents with a kitchen caddy and compostable bags to assist in managing their food scraps when the new service begins.

Cr David Bell welcomed the launch date for the new waste service.

“In recent years it has been clear that we need to take a different approach to waste and recycling – to avoid it in the first place and better manage what we do produce,” he said. “We should think of resource recovery not waste disposal.”

“The changes to the service aim to reduce the amount of material sent to landfill. Separating glass at home keeps broken glass out of other recyclable materials so they can be recycled more effectively. Collecting food organics with garden organics means it gets processed into compost and mulch instead of being sent to landfill where it releases greenhouse gasses as it breaks down,” Cr Bell said.

In the next few months Council will send letters to every ratepayer and resident to ensure people are informed about changes to the waste service.

Before the service starts, Council will:

  • deliver additional kerbside bins (a purple-lid bin to every household, and green organics bin to rural customers)

  • deliver a benchtop caddy to every property, which will make it easy to collect food scraps in your kitchen and transport them to your outside bin

  • switch dark green lids on any kerbside general waste bins to red (in line with the national standard)

  • provide a new collection calendar that includes information on what material goes in what bin.

Council officers will also be out in the community for face-to-face conversations at markets, events and pop-up information stalls to help residents understand the service before the change comes into effect.

“We are keen to work with people in multi-unit residences – like retirement villages, apartments, and townhouses – that might benefit from a shared bin arrangement instead of the standard service. We encourage the body corporate representatives in these residences to contact Council’s Waste Services team to discuss the best set up for you,” Cr Bell said.

Residents of properties that are classified as rural will still have a choice of whether or not to use Council’s kerbside waste collection service.

“If rural residents choose to use Council’s service, it will be the new four bin service, or you can choose to manage your waste on your own in other ways,” Cr Bell said.

“Along with other Australian councils, we are working to create a recycling system that is more locally-based, resilient and sustainable, and a recovery system that keeps organic materials out of our Anglesea landfill. Having residents further separate recycling into categories at home plays an important part in achieving this.” Cr Bell said.

For more details and answers to common questions visit www.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/Kerbside2020.

/Public Release. View in full here.