The Cardia Bioproducts waste bag range was established in response to the strong global demand for sustainable packaging products by companies, retailers, councils and consumers.
Diverting organic waste from landfills using compostable waste management bags is an important opportunity for councils in the search for sustainable options.
Landfills are filling up, landfill costs are increasing and organic material can be utilised to create quality compost.
The City of Nedlands aims to achieve a waste reduction of 65 per cent by 2020 through implementing effective environmental management practices and one of the main strategies is diverting the maximum percentage of waste from landfill.
Waste Minimisation Coordinator, Chaminda Mendis, recognised an opportunity to fulfil Council’s Waste Minimisation Strategy and support resident’s to adopt sustainable practices, through introducing compostable dog waste bags.
“Introducing Cardia compostable dog waste bags was not a difficult decision,” said Mr Mendis said.
“We dispense 400,000 bags a year from 80 dispensers across the City and changing from plastic bags to Cardia compostable dog waste bags provided the best option to our ratepayers for diverting the waste from landfill.
“We worked together with Cardia to design the bags specifically to the needs of our residents. User feedback asked for a larger- sized bag, handles and, gussets to be inserted. The company was able to comply with all our modifications.
“When researching the new system, it was important to Council that the product achieved the Australian Standard for compostability AS 4736 and this is one of
the few that does.
“Now other councils are looking at what we are doing here at Nedlands as a guide to adopting similar practices.”
FOGO
Food and garden organics, (FOGO), is gathering momentum providing another option for keeping waste out of landfill and meeting waste reduction targets.
The introduction of FOGO by Penrith City Council, New South Wales, has seen amazing results.
In the past year Council has composted 29,267 tonnes of food scraps, garden clippings and organic material.
The successful introduction of FOGO depends largely on best practice from user/residents through to composter to satisfy the greater need for lower contamination rates.
Using compostable bin liners for council roll outs of FOGO with comprehensive education and consistent community engagement programs has been proven to help increase uptake and decrease contamination measures.
At Penrith, contamination rates have fallen to 4.7 percent.
INSIST on CERTIFIED COMPOSTABLE packaging and bags only.
Having certified compostable bin liners with a large visible seedling logo-identifying conformance to AS4736 has been noted to be a requirement for many composters nationally to accept bags.
Website: cardiabioplastics.com Contact: (03) 8566 6800
*Copy supplied by Rivka Garson of Cardia Bioplastics
