Waste plan moves to reduce landfill

Plans to modernise Bega Valley Shire Council’s waste management practices are confirmed, with steps in place to reduce landfill dependency and its associated costs.

Councillors recently agreed to a suite of measures that will modernise waste infrastructure and focus on diversion and reuse of valuable materials commonly destined for landfill.

Waste Services Manager, Alan Gundrill said modernising waste management requires a detailed planning approach combined with a strong focus on waste education.

“For as long as our communities have been generating waste, the basic approach has been to bin it, burn it or bury it. Thankfully, we are now experiencing a genuine shift in the way people think about waste,” he said.

“Our role in this process is to enable this change by providing the infrastructure and services people need to be responsible managers of their own household waste.

“We’ve started immediately by making the Bermagui Waste Transfer Station a seven-day-a-week facility.

“Residents to the shire’s north are now able to access waste and recycling services any day of the week at the Bermagui site, making this a big win for business users and the Cobargo community who lost their waste transfer station in the Black Summer bushfires.

“The Merimbula and Eden sites will follow suit, ultimately opening every day to serve southern and centrally-located residents as our smaller transfer stations in Wallagoot and Candelo transition towards closing.

“In light of what we have heard from the community, access to the Central Waste Facility in Wolumla will only open to contractors. The Bemboka transfer station will stay open to the public as a result of this move.

“We are in the process of implementing a big increase in rural collections as well, with 1100 new kerbside and bin bank services rolling out in the near future.

“This will deliver not only convenience for our rural customers, but also vastly improved access to recycling through a regular yellow bin service.

“Increased reuse and recycling are the drivers of these changes and we are pleased to now have go-ahead to commence the planning of a resource recovery precinct at the CWF.

“This will introduce a range of opportunities for landfill diversion to happen onsite at the CWF, including recovery of recyclable materials from commercial and industrial waste, and the development of an improved organics processing facility.

“These are big changes, many of them requiring years of planning to fully implement. This is an exciting time for waste services across all levels of Government, and we are very keen to work with the community to showcase how waste services in the Bega Valley can improve over the coming years, and the opportunities that will arise as a result.” Mr Gundrill said.