Increasing recycling rates and slashing the amount of illegally dumped rubbish are among the major aims of Maribyrnong council’s 10-year waste minimisation plan.
Just 32 per cent of Maribyrnong’s waste is diverted from landfill, well below the metropolitan average of 45 per cent.
The draft strategy includes a target to divert a further 13 per cent of waste from landfill through reduced contamination of recycling bins and greater recycling of organic waste, saving the council up to $420,000 a year. Organic waste, which includes food and garden materials, makes up more than half the contents of most household bins.
The Melbourne Metropolitan Waste Management Group is undertaking trials to combine food waste in green bins while using new technology to remove organic waste before sending rubbish to landfill.
The council’s plan, released for public comment on July 22, also highlights the ongoing problem of illegal dumping.
“There is still regular dumping of furniture, mattresses and hard waste on vacant land, along railway lines, outside residential properties and in council reserves,” the strategy document states.
“There is also a considerable amount of industrial waste that is illegally disposed of in the municipality.
‘‘There is a link between dumped rubbish and the knowledge and use of the council hard waste collection. Residential feedback has indicated there is a lack of knowledge about the at-call hard waste collection, how it works and even that it exists.”
The council plans to step up its program of education, prevention and enforcement.
It has also drawn up new waste minimisation measures for the next decade, including the rollout of new bins and waste management education in the Footscray CBD and at sports and recreation centres.
A pensioner rebate for the city’s user-pays green waste service and regular electronic waste collection days could also be introduced.
To view the strategy, visit www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au
