Lake Macquarie City Council's compost giveaway was mulch appreciated by locals at Awaba Waste Management Facility

Some 676 local residents collected a free trailer load of compost.

"More than 470 tonnes of high quality compost was collected by residents from the Awaba Waste Management Facility," a spokesperson for the council said.

"With the compost now making its way to hundreds of happy local gardens around our city it completes the cycle of our food and organics waste service, which has diverted more than 40,000 tonnes of food and garden waste from landfill since the service started in July, 2018."

The compost was formed from waste collected from green bins across the city.

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