Surf Coast residents could soon have five bins under new council proposal

Residents of a regional Victorian municipality could soon have more than two bins to grapple with on bin night, under a bold plan to have at least five rubbish bins per household. This is how it would work.

Residents of one council area in the region would each have at least five rubbish bins at home under a plan to ease the state’s waste crisis.

In a bold Surf Coast Shire plan, properties would have bins for glass, paper/cardboard, and an ­indoor container for food organics to go with the three bins they already have.

Under the $2.4 million plan proposed by council officers, every home would get a 120-litre bin for glass.

A paper/cardboard bin would be provided to some homes on a trial basis. It would likely have a 240-litre capacity, and be collected monthly.

A food organics collection service, which has been trialled in Anglesea, would be rolled out shire-wide, with residents collecting compostable waste in smaller basket-style bins.

Councillors have been told the glass recycling bin and paper/cardboard trial would cost $1.18 million on top of the money spent on the shire’s current rubbish, recycling and green-waste bins.

Surf Coast residents could soon have more than two bins to contend with on bin night.

With Victoria’s mixed-recycling system in crisis, Surf Coast Shire acting CEO Anne Howard said the extra bins would ease pressure on the sector.

“Increased sorting of recyclables by households can minimise cross contamination and more effectively direct material to suppliers in the market that can better reuse, recycle and remanufacture these materials,” she said.

“We will fully explore the best use of a fourth bin in consultation with community and industry, but we know separating glass is especially valuable as it prevents broken glass from contaminating a full load of recyclables.”

Broel's View cartoon on bins.

Ms Howard said the council would work with the community on how to best use a fifth bin, including finding a suitable township in which to trial the service.

“We understand that any proposal to introduce additional bins means that our residents would need to think about how they manage it, however council has heard clearly that the community expects things to change and so these options need to be looked at,” she said.

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In nearby Geelong, Mayor Bruce Harwood previously said he had started to explore the fourth bin idea with council’s waste management staff, who were receptive to the idea.

“One thought was to have a fourth bin or some strategic locations within our region where people can take their paper and cardboard to,” he said in April.

The rollout of Surf Coast Shire’s food organics collection service will cost $1.29 million, and be based on the success of the Anglesea Food Organics and Green Organics (FOGO) pilot program.

The FOGO project saw 22 per cent less waste collected from Anglesea going to landfill. The shire began a kerbside food organics and garden organics pilot at 3000 homes in Anglesea in December, with landfill waste collected fortnightly and organic waste collected weekly.

While SKM Recycling has been out of operation, recyclables have been taken to landfill in the Surf Coast.

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Originally published as Surf Coast residents could soon have five bins under new council proposal