Moree Plains Shire Council, New South Wales, is targeting waste contamination with their new Which Bin? competition encouraging local residents to correctly dispose of recycling and organic waste.
In conjunction with neighbouring Gwydir and Narrabri Shires, Council’s kerbside domestic waste collection service, provided by Cleanaway, utilises a three bin system; general waste (red bin), recyclables (yellow bin) and food and garden organics (green bin).
Currently across the region, one in three truckloads of waste placed in recyclable bins ends up in landfill due to contamination.
The competition aims to reduce waste contamination and teach residents correct use of the three bin service.
The Which Bin? competition ran over four weeks (one of these weeks coinciding with National Recycling Week) with residents registering their address through Council’s free MPSC Waste App.
During each week of the competition, the yellow or green bin (depending on the week) of the randomly selected registered address was inspected by Cleanaway representatives for waste contamination.
The owner of the contamination-free bin, announced as that week’s ‘Waste Warrior’ on Council’s Facebook page, was awarded a $250 Love Local Moree Card.
Education was a key focus of the competition.
The MPSC Waste App was created to provide residents with an alphabetical directory outlining which waste items are appropriate for each bin as well as bin-day reminders and portals enabling requests for new bins or to report littering, illegal dumping or a missed collection service.
To drive increasing take up of the App, residents could only register for the competition on the platform.
Educational materials and facts were also heavily promoted on Council’s Facebook page, including infographics, lists of do’s and don’ts for yellow and green bin waste as well as reminders to register for the competition and which bin was due for inspection each week.
The success of the competition will be measured by comparing data provided by Cleanaway and reports from the Material Recovery Facility in Narrabri.
