Waste management changes commence

The new food and garden organics bin collection, along with a glass and food drop off initiative at transfer stations at Hepburn Shire, will divert tonnes of waste from landfill and deliver better waste management outcomes.  

The new food and garden organics kerbside bin collections for township residents in Hepburn Shire commence today, Monday 8 April. 

Under the change, the new weekly food and garden organics kerbside collection has been introduced for townships, with general rubbish/landfill collection moving to fortnightly. Collection of mixed recycling remains fortnightly. 

The changes are part of the state government’s Recycling Victoria legislation, which requires all local governments to implement an organics service. 

“The weekly organics collection will help to divert thousands of tonnes of material from landfill, including food scraps and leftovers, meat, bones, dairy products, garden clippings, leaves and weeds,” said Mayor, Cr Brian Hood. 

“Rather than ending up in landfill, these items will be treated as a valuable resource and converted locally to high-quality compost at the Creswick Transfer Station. The compost will be used to improve soil for local farms, parks and gardens,” he said. 

The introduction of an organics collection is a key action of Council’s Sustainable Hepburn Strategy, which was informed by input from 400 residents. Around 950 households in Clunes have successfully trialled a weekly organics collection since 2021, thereby diverting around 350 tonnes of organic waste from landfill annually. 

Residents are reminded that the system does not accept bags, even compostable or biodegradable ones. Food scraps and garden cuttings can be placed straight into the kitchen caddy or lime-green lidded bin. Residents are encouraged to limit liquids going into their kitchen caddy and to use a small amount of paper towel, newspaper or like to line the bottom to help manage the process of collecting food scraps. 

As part of Council’s work to improve waste management, residents and ratepayers will be able to drop off food scraps (up to 120L of food scraps only, not garden clippings) and glass (clean jars and bottles, lids removed) to our transfer stations. This free trial also commences today and will be in place until 30 June. 

“Township households have a weekly food and garden organics kerbside collection, so this trial will allow people outside of the main townships or residents anyone with excess food scraps, to drop off them off to transfer stations for free,” said Cr Hood.  

“Glass continues to be accepted in our mixed recycling collection, but broken glass is a major contaminant of other recyclables, especially paper,” he said. 

Under the Victorian Government’s circular economy policy and plan, Council will need to remove glass from the mixed recycling and determine how glass is collected prior to 2027.