Council said with 70 per cent of urban households on board, the expansion to include food scraps with garden waste has been welcomed by residents with 3050 tonnes of food and garden waste diverted from landfill.
“Food and garden waste in landfill creates methane which is 25 times more damaging to our environment than carbon dioxide,” Campaspe Shire Council community general manager Keith Oberin said.
Before the green bin service expanded, food and garden organics made up half of Campaspe’s waste going to landfill.
“Rather than ending up in landfill, this valuable resource is now being delivered to local Stanhope business Biomix, where it is turned into nutritious compost and reused on local gardens, parks and farms,” Mr Oberin said.
In the first year the combined food scraps and garden organics service saw 1900 new green bin services and a 0.25 per cent contamination rate.
All food scraps can be added to the green bin, including fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, seafood, meat, bones, dairy products, bread, cereal, pasta and rice as well as all leftover food – cooked and raw.
Items that cannot go in the green bin include cling wrap, nappies, baby wipes, makeup wipes, glass, plastics, liquids, and metal (bottle caps, gardening tools, wire).
Council said it was important to keep all plastic and biodegradable bags out of the green bin.
Only Australian standard compostable bags with the AS4736 symbol can be used as they are made with a natural corn starch base and vegetable oils which break down once in a composting environment.
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