LAKE Macquarie households will have their red bins collected fortnightly, and their green bins collected weekly, but the change won’t happen until 2018.
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The change is part of Phase 2 of Lake Macquarie City Council’s waste strategy.
Residents would receive extensive notification of the impending change once the start date approached next year, council said.
In February 2011, council resolved to introduce a phased three-bin service for household waste.
“Phase 1 started in April, 2013, with the introduction of a new green waste bin for all households in addition to the existing garbage (red lid) and recycling (yellow lid) bins,” a spokesperson for council said.
“At present, the green waste bin is for garden waste only and is emptied fortnightly.
“Phase 2, scheduled to begin in 2018, will introduce food waste in the green bin.”
Phase 2, scheduled to begin in 2018, will introduce food waste in the green bin.
- - LMCC spokesperson
Green waste bins would then be emptied weekly, and garbage (red) bins would be emptied fortnightly, they said.
The change is being made possible by the construction of a new organic processing plant at Awaba Waste Management Facility.
Once the new organic processing plant was completed, the contents of household green waste bins would be delivered there, council said.
The facility would accept all food and garden waste, and process it into “high-quality Australian standard compost products”.
The Lakes Mail understands there has been some confusion over the start date for the changes, as Phase 2 of the waste management strategy was mentioned in council’s Operational Plan 2017-2018.
Some residents assumed the changes would come into play from the start of the new financial year, next month.
The council said it had a detailed public education campaign planned.
“We will advise the community of the date in advance and provide a range of information, tools and resources to support all residents in using this service,” they said.
“We are planning an extensive awareness campaign using avenues such as media, advertising, social media, posters, signage and pop-up stalls to allow face-to-face interaction with residents. Households will also receive a starter kit that includes information on the service changes.”