Melburnians have embraced their new food and garden organics collection service – with nearly 150 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill in just two months.
The City of Melbourne began rolling out the new service in June, with waste collections from 9,000 homes across the municipality.
Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Sally Capp, said the program has been an overwhelming success in a short period of time.
“The clear message we’re getting from our community is that they’re keen to embrace a more environmentally friendly way to dispose of their waste,” the Lord Mayor said.
“Last month alone, our team collected food and garden waste from more than 16,200 bins and processed 115 tonnes of organic waste – preventing hundreds of kilograms of Co2 emissions from being generated in landfill.”
“The organic waste we’ve collected has been converted into around 42 tonnes of valuable compost. We’re now exploring how best to use this compost, this will support the creation of a circular economy and help maintain our beautiful parks, gardens and trees,” she said.
The City of Melbourne invested $1 million to establish the new food and organics waste service at no additional cost to residents.
The new food and organics service is part of the City of Melbourne’s Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy 2030, which aims to reduce landfill and improve waste and recycling services across the municipality.
Residents in stand-alone houses and single-storey apartment blocks were given a 120-litre lime-green wheelie bin, a kitchen caddy for food scraps and 52 compostable bin liners to reduce odours as part of the program.
The City of Melbourne is now calling on residents who have used the food and organic waste service to provide feedback and share their tips and tricks to help other residents.
Environment portfolio lead Councillor, Rohan Leppert, said the early success of the service was heartening, and community feedback would help Council roll out the service across the municipality.
“We’re putting our food scraps to good use and reducing our impact on the environment,” Cr Leppert said.
“By repurposing organic waste, the community is helping to make our city a more sustainable and environmentally friendly place to work, live and visit.”
“If you’ve been using our food and organic waste service we want to hear from you. Tell us what’s worked and what hasn’t so we can continue to improve and expand the service.”
Residents can provide feedback on the food and organics waste service at Participate Melbourne from Wednesday 1 September 2021.
Anyone who completes the survey, or shares their tips and tricks, on the page before 1 November 2021 will go in the draw to win one of three $100 Queen Victoria Market vouchers.
For more information about the food and organics waste service visit the City of Melbourne website.
