What you told us about waste and recycling in Baw Baw

What you told us about waste and recycling in Baw Baw

Published on 06 January 2020

Baw Baw’s waste and recycling survey closed on Friday 29 November and we received 385 submissions, demonstrating a high level of interest within our community.

E-waste and recycling best practices were hot topics amongst responses, while the community’s widespread use of home composting was a highlight. Two-thirds of those surveyed reported already composting food organics and green organics (FOGO) at home, with an even higher proportion (73%) indicating they would likely use a FOGO bin if introduced – a fantastic result that shows the willingness of our community to make changes to improve our environment.

Here’s a summary of the survey’s key findings:

85% of those surveyed are satisfied with our kerbside collection service (including hard waste). 72% preferred the free annual hard waste offer to be a kerbside collection over a transfer station drop off, mainly due to its convenience and a number of residents not having a trailer to take it to the transfer station themselves. 66% currently compost food organics and green organics (FOGO) at home. 73% would likely use a FOGO bin if introduced. 75% knew that e-waste (items with a cord/battery) can be dropped off free at our transfer stations. 55% received enough information from Council about our waste and recycling services, with social media and emails scoring the highest preference.

Council would like to thank all those who responded. Your feedback is highly valued and will directly inform our waste and recycling services going forward.

While a majority of residents told us that they received enough information from Council about our waste and recycling services, 45% said they would like more information – particularly regarding what can and cannot be put in recycling bins. Social media and email were identified as the preferred methods of communication.

To make it easier for residents to receive regular updates on waste and recycling news, we’ve created a quarterly email newsletter, Our Environment. Subscribe for free via Council’s website to get the latest waste and recycling news directly to your inbox.

Additionally, Council will provide regular updates on social media throughout the year, tackling key topics of interest as highlighted in the survey results. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to get all the latest news.

We look forward to working together with the community to reducing waste, promoting reuse and implementing great recycling practises to improve waste management in Baw Baw Shire.

Quotes attributable to Mayor Cr Danny Goss

“I want to thank the community for their response to this survey. Council is dedicated to improving our service delivery in line with community expectations and is committed to making use of the insights provided by this survey to do that.”

“We will continue to explore ways to better inform and educate our residents about waste and recycling services, with a key emphasis on what can and can’t be recycled - a key topic of interest highlighted in the survey results.”