Room for improvement in garden organics bin 15 October

While most residents are using their green-lidded bins correctly, there is room for improvement across the municipality with 5,000 kilograms of non-compostable household waste removed from our organics collection every week.

Laminated kitchen cupboards, plastic bottles, clothing, timber off-cuts, weed matting, plastic food packaging and bags of household rubbish were just some of the non-compostable items found in one truck load of garden organics last month.

Treated pine, rocks, garden hoses and a variety of garden tools are also regularly found in loads.

All these waste items are difficult and expensive to remove and can affect the quality of the compost produced.

Following collection, the garden organics are taken to a transfer station in Moolap for chipping into smaller pieces to make the composting process more efficient.

Up to 25 trucks carrying 8,000 kilograms each of garden waste arrive at the transfer station every day.

After the truck empties its load, a team of five people or ‘pickers’ complete their first ‘pick’ to remove obvious contamination.

A front end loader then lifts and spreads out the garden waste to allow the pickers to conduct a more thorough collection of contaminants.

Following the second pick, the garden organics are put through a mechanical shredder to reduce particles to 3 centimetre lengths. The material is then trucked to our compost processing facility at Staceys Road in Lovely Banks.

Andrew Lucas – Garden Organics Process Facility

The high volume of garden organics arriving at the Moolap site means it’s difficult to remove every piece of contamination.

The non-compostable items can be broken into smaller pieces inside the collection truck, while the bags of household rubbish are often torn and their contents spilled across the rest of the load.

It’s impossible to collect every small piece of contamination in the short time available so we encourage people to use their green-lidded bins for garden organics only. All household waste should be placed in the kerbside waste bin.

Remember, if it doesn’t grow, it doesn’t go.”

/Public Release. View in full here.