Shire of Augusta Margaret River’, Western Australia, has successfully introduced a new three-bin kerbside collection service, halving the amount of waste residents are sending to landfill.
Waste Education Officer, Jackie Dickson, said the results were very encouraging and showed the local community’s commitment to managing household waste responsibly.
“Before the three-bin service, we were seeing an average of 471 tonnes of waste from the kerbside collection going to landfill each month.
“The introduction of the green food organics and garden organics (FOGO) bin and increased recycling services has dropped that number down by half, to 229 tonnes of waste each month which is a great result for such a new service.
“Halving the amount of waste we are sending to landfill from the kerbside collection in just three months is a huge win for our community and will help extend the lifespan of our landfill.”
From 1 July to 30 September, Augusta Margaret River Shire residents diverted 57 percent of waste in the kerbside bins from landfill, a huge improvement on the 20 percent of waste that was diverted in the same period last year under the two-bin system.
An audit report showed a very low contamination rate in the FOGO bins.
“The Bunbury Harvey Regional Council, who composts the contents of the Shire’s organics from FOGO bins at their organics processing facility, released a report detailing a three percent contamination rate in organic waste from the Shire.
“This is excellent for such a new service and shows that the community is doing a great job of using their bins correctly.”
Twelve-year-old primary school student, Willem Healy, has been appointed the official ambassador for the Shire’s Best We’ve Ever Bin campaign, to help lead a cultural change about waste management, and increase community pride, ownership and buy-in into the new bin service.
He said he was very honoured and proud to be the first Best We’ve Ever Bin ambassador.
“I like being the ambassador for the new bins because I get to help people and help the environment.
“I hope I can teach more people how to do it right.”
