By Ewen McRae
Both Melton and Moorabool councils say they are unsure how a new state government recycling initiative will affect ratepayers, but they welcome improvements in the sector.
The government last week unveiled a plan to introduce a four-bin system for Victorian households, as part of a long term strategy to reduce waste going to landfill by 80 per cent in the next 10 years.
The changes to kerbside recycling would mean each household has bins specific for each kind of waste; glass recycling (purple lid), food and garden organics (green lid), plastic, metal and paper recycling (yellow lid), and household waste (red lid).
Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the changes were a response to growing concern over worldwide recycling strains.
“We know Victorians want to be able to do more to recycle household waste,” Ms D’Ambrosio said.
“This new system will make it easier for all of us to do our bit.” Melton council said it were unsure about the specific impacts of the new system on ratepayers, but operations manager Les Stokes
said that change was necessary.
“Council welcomes investment in and improvements to the recycling sector,” Mr Stokes said.
“We are awaiting more detail from the state government before we can understand the effects, if any, on our ratepayers.”
Moorabool council chief executive Derek Madden said the council would be seeking a meeting with the government to outline the new program and any potential impacts on residents.
“Council broadly supports reforms to standardise kerbside collections throughout Victoria,” Mr Madden said.
“Council wrote to the state government a few years ago strongly encouraging the implementation of a container deposit scheme.
“We want to meet with the government, the Regional Waste Recovery Group and the Municipal Association of Victoria to get further information about the reforms, and we will work through what they mean for Moorabool.”
The government said the new bins would be rolled out gradually in 2021.
