LAKE Macquarie City Council has started the roll-out of starter kits for the city’s greener 3-bin system which will start on Monday, July 30.
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The kits include a kitchen food scraps bin, a roll of 150 compostable bags, instructions on the new system, and a collection calendar to remind residents of when each bin will be emptied.
Under the new service, all food scraps and garden waste will go into the household green bin, which will be emptied weekly. Garbage (red) bins and recycling (yellow) bins will be emptied on alternating fortnights.
Mayor Kay Fraser urged residents and businesses to leave their green bins out until 5pm on collection day to allow crews to apply new instructional stickers when they deliver starter kits.
“This is a significant change for our city, but one which has substantial long-term environmental and financial benefits,” Cr Fraser said.
“It will reduce the amount of waste going to landfill by an estimated 17,000 tonnes a year and offset increasing annual waste disposal costs, making our city’s waste services more affordable into the future.
“Community consultation, extensive trials, and the experience of other NSW councils that have already adopted the 3-bin system tell us this is the best way forward for Lake Macquarie,” she said.
A 2016 trial of the new system in Lake Macquarie found that, on average, more than three kilograms of food waste per household was diverted from landfill each week. Just four per cent of participants reported any difficulty using the new food scraps bin and compostable bags.
Planning and sustainability manager Alice Howe said food and garden waste would be processed into mulch and compost at council’s new organics resource recovery facility at Awaba.
“This material will be used to enrich the soil in our parks, gardens and sporting grounds, and will be available commercially for use in home gardens and agriculture,” Dr Howe said.
Starter kits will be delivered to most Lake Macquarie homes over the coming month, with delivery across the city completed by mid-July.
Further information about the new system, past community consultation, and research are on council’s website at lakemac.com.au/food-garden-green.
Go to lakemac.com.au/starter-kit-delivery for further details about the starter kit rollout schedule in your neighbourhood.
This project is supported by the Environmental Trust as part of the NSW EPA’s Waste Less Recycle More initiative, funded from the Waste Levy.
