Organics collections set to start in Guyra

Guyra residents will soon be able to participate in an award-winning community composting program, when the City to Soil program is added to their kerbside waste collection at the start of July.

Households in the Guyra district have started to receive their green-lid City to Soil bins, for all their food scraps and green garden waste, in preparation for the service’s extension to Guyra from 1 July.

“In addition, a kitchen storage container, biodegradable bags and educational material on the program will soon be delivered to households to make it easy for them to successfully use the new service,” Armidale Regional Council Mayor Simon Murray said.

“Everyone who receives a kerbside waste collection service will also have a green-lid organics bin, and the entire community can benefit from the high-quality compost produced through the program.

“City to Soil has been a tremendous success since it was introduced in Armidale more than 10 years ago, by diverting valuable materials away from landfill and providing low-cost compost that has been a great asset for home gardeners and vegetable growers.”

The program is at the core of Council’s ‘greenprint’ strategy for environmental sustainability. Entitled EcoARC, the strategy guides Council’s own operations and assist groups throughout the Armidale region to achieve sustainability.

“In areas of NSW where a separate organics bin is not provided, Council find food scraps and garden waste can account for up to half of the materials going to landfill – where they take much longer to break down and produce gases that contribute to climate change,” Councillor Murray said.

“Keeping organics out of general waste also substantially slows the rate our landfills are filled, delaying the need to construct additional facilities and keeping a lid on future costs to Council and the community.

“Those benefits to our region will be boosted by bringing Guyra on board.”

The program’s extension is also part of Council’s post-merger program to ensure services and charges are consistent throughout the region.

Funding from the NSW Government’s Waste Less, Recycling More program, through its Organics Collections Grants Program, has assisted with extending City to Soil to Guyra.

Published on 17 Jun 2019