By Sumeyya Ilanbey
Moorabool’s urban residents are to be offered green-waste bins on a permanent basis.
Councillors agreed at last week’s council meeting to keep the non-compulsory kerbside green-waste collection service within residential and urban areas of the shire such as Bacchus Marsh and Ballan.
The service has been in trial mode since January last year.
In their report, council officers said the service had attracted a “healthy uptake”, with 961 residents signing up before the trial started. The number of residents using the green waste collection service had since increased to 2000.
The amount of kerbside waste going to landfill since the trial started had decreased 187 tonnes in a year.
The report stated that during the trial period, 635 tonnes of green waste had been collected from households.
“This material is diverted from landfill … to the Pinegro reprocessing facility at Mt Wallace,” the council report stated.
Council figures for the trial period indicate that on average 300 kilograms of green waste was collected from each property. As part of the service, property owners purchase bins at a one-off cost of $115 and pay $71 a year for the collection.
Council officers expected the yearly fee to be between $85 and $100 prior to the start of the trial, but it was reduced because of the high uptake.
“Prior to a kerbside green waste collection service option, council was diverting approximately 1000 tonnes of garden waste per year from landfill, sourced from tenements dropping off green waste directly at council’s three transfer stations,” the report stated.
“Green waste tonnages received at the transfer stations has not decreased over this trial period.”
To take part in the council’s kerbside green-waste collection call 5366 7100.
A 2015 Moorabool council survey revealed more than half of the respondents would use a kerbside green-waste collection service if it was available.
When asked how residents were disposing of their green-waste, some said they were burning off outside of the fire danger period, while others said they were illegally dumping their green-waste because of “ridiculous” transfer station fees.
