The Shire of Campaspe, in conjunction with the Goulburn Valley Regional Waste Management Group (Resource GV), Cleanaway and Sustainable Kyabram (SKY), is part way through an innovative organic waste trial in Kyabram.
Environment and Waste spokesperson Councillor Greg Toll said the project was made possible through State Government funding through Sustainability Victoria’s Towards Zero Waste support grants.
Over 270 households in Kyabram are involved in the trial that aims to gauge the costs and benefits of a food and garden waste collection service.
“To date, collection results have been excellent. Each household is averaging 19 kilograms of organic waste per collection, with little to no contamination in
each bin.”
Introduction of an organic waste service was identified in Council’s Waste Management Strategy, adopted last year.
The five-year strategy was developed as part of Council’s commitment to provide sustainable solutions for the collection, disposal and resource recovery of waste generated within the community.
“Data from comprehensive garbage audits in 2007 and 2010 found that Campaspe Shire had the highest proportion of total organic waste in the garbage stream in the region.
“Organic material left to decompose in landfill produces a significant amount of methane, which has 21-25 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
“The results indicated that 65 percent of domestic garbage going to landfill in the Shire was organic waste, made up of 25 percent food waste and 40 percent garden waste. Also noted in the 2010 results was that the garbage bin weight for Campaspe residents was 16.5 percent higher than the region average.
The statistics highlight the importance of the trial for the Campaspe region.
Cr Toll said the idea of a third kerbside bin is not new, but investigating the various methods of transferring the waste from the kitchen to the wheelie bin outside is new for the region.
“Households in the trial have been provided with an additional bin, along with a small kitchen bin to assist with the transferring of food waste from the kitchen.”
Recycling contractor Cleanaway is providing the logistic support for the trial as well as processing the collected material.
The three-month trial commenced in March and will conclude at the end of June.
