Wyndham residents won’t be receiving a fourth bin, with council saying the introduction of an extra bin would be “extremely costly” and wouldn’t “meet the varied needs of households”.
The state government has mandated that Victorian councils introduce separate glass, food and garden organics, recyclables and rubbish services, in an effort to divert waste from landfill.
It’s Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act, which was passed in December 2021, requires councils and alpine resort management boards to provide the separate services to households in their municipality by 2030.
The government said that in most instances this will mean a four-bin system at the kerbside.
The act also outline mandatory service standards which will be introduced for councils and alpine resorts to follow when delivering the four-stream service. This will include standardising the items accepted in those waste and recycling streams across Victoria.
However, Wyndham council believes it can deliver separate glass, organics, recyclables and rubbish services without introducing extra bins.
City operations director Stephen Thorpe said council was keen to provide a “complementary alternative for municipal councils”.
He said council believed a better, potentially more cost effective option, would be to progress plans for a “state-of-the-art” alternative waste processing facility in Werribee.
“The state has mandated we move away from the current two or three services to a four service waste system, which could be achieved by a four bin collection service,” Mr Thorpe said.
“We believe that the requirement to provide four services to our residents can be met in a number of ways, including providing drop-off services.
“The new facility will provide us with the ability to remove food and green waste at the upgraded landfill to support Victoria’s target to achieve an 80 per cent diversion of waste from landfill by 2030.
“This would mean that instead of requiring households to separate organics and food from general waste, and therefore requiring a fourth bin, this new facility will provide us with the ability to remove the green waste at the landfill.”
Mr Thorpe said council supported the state governments “ambitious targets” to reduce waste, but a fourth bin would be “extremely costly” for councils.
He said community engagement would occur before any changes are made to waste services.
Environment and Climate Action Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the state government would provide $127 million to support local councils to reform kerbside recycling.
“We’re working with all councils to roll out the game-changing new four-stream recycling system to every household across the state, keeping glass and other valuable resources out of landfill and recycling them into new products,” Ms D’Ambrosio said.
