Do the Right Thing with Waste (Latest GM Column – 8 December 2018)

Waste is again the hot topic in communities across NSW with the recent announcement from the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) that mixed waste organic outputs must now be sent to landfill.

The mixed waste organic output is a soil conditioner made from materials processed out of household red lidded bins.

After supporting this alternate waste treatment process, which was advocated by the EPA for more than a decade, this decision has left Councils like ours having to send additional waste to landfill.

Coffs Harbour is in a better position than some other areas as our residents already lead the state in recycling and waste minimisation. However, we need your help to further reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfill by ensuring that your waste is correctly sorted into your three bins.

As a reminder, your household waste should be sorted into the three household bins as follows:

Green bins – all food scraps and garden waste, but no plastic, biodegradable or compostable bags. Yellow Bins – plastic containers with the numbers 1 to 7, glass bottles and jars, clean paper and cardboard, aluminium and steel cans, milk and juice cartons. Red Bins – all other household waste except hazardous materials. But remember, no recyclables or food waste – using the red bin for these is a lost resource for our community.

This, in conjunction with using your Community Recycling Facilities for free for any household problem wastes and e-waste, will enable us to keep on being an outstanding community for waste practices in NSW.

You can find out more information about how to correctly sort your waste at www.coffscoastwaste.com.au

Also – every Coffs Harbour local government area household with a three-bin rubbish collection service will receive an extra yellow bin pick-up to cope with the recycling generated over the holiday season.

The additional yellow bin pick-up will run from Thursday December 27, 2018, until Wednesday January 9, 2019. During that time, residents should stick to their regular bin timetable and put their bins out on their usual day, but on the week in that fortnight that they usually only put out their red and green bins, they can also put their yellow bin out again for collection. This will mean that for one week, they will have three bins on the kerb instead of the usual two. After January 9, normal services will resume.