6 May 2014

Strathfield Council will receive $118,000 toward introducing a Food and Garden Organics collection service to reduce waste sent to landfill as part of the NSW Government’s Waste Less, Recycle More initiative.

The Food and Garden Organics waste collection is a new service which allows all food waste to be placed in green bins and broken down into compost materials.

Mayor of Strathfield, Cr Daniel Bott said Council is always looking to implement new methods of recycling for the greater environmental benefits.

“It’s a well known fact that landfill sites are filling up. But you probably didn’t know that food makes up almost 40 per cent of household waste,” Cr Bott said.

“Strathfield Council has made a commitment to reduce its waste sent to landfill by 70 per cent by 2021. This Food and Garden Organics service enables all food waste from household kitchens in the Strathfield community to be diverted from landfill and composted, reducing greenhouse gases.

“This new service will have the single-biggest impact on waste levels in the Strathfield area and as a result, on significant positive environmental benefits.”

All households will receive a small kitchen organics bin with biodegradable liners to assist in collecting food scraps and transferring to green bins. The green bin will change to a weekly collection as a result.

The food and garden organics collected in the green bin will be processed into high quality compost.

Council’s commenced a trial of the Food and Garden Organics collection in two trial areas in 2013 of 1550 houses. The grant funding will support Council to roll out the system to all single-dwelling properties in the Local Government Area (an additional 5400 properties) along with a community education program to communicate the change in service.

Council will firstly go to Tender for the collection and disposal of the Food and Garden Organics, with the aim to commence the service in 2014.