The Greater Geelong Council is investing in major waste facility upgrades as it prepares to introduce kerbside bin reforms that will help keep more household waste out of landfill.
The Council's proposed 2024-25 Budget includes significant funding to enable the introduction of Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) and glass kerbside collection services in the coming years.
The City collects approximately 43,000 tonnes of garden waste in green kerbside bins each year and recycles the materials into compost at its own facilities. The compost is then used on local parks, farms and gardens.
The proposed budget includes $16.7 million for upgrades at the City's existing waste facilities to enable food and garden waste to be processed together in large quantities. This will enable a move to a FOGO service by 2027-28.
The proposed budget also sets aside $8.6 million in 2026-27 for the purchase and rollout of purple-lid kerbside bins for glass, enabling the introduction of a glass only collection service.
Under legislation introduced by the state government, all Victorian councils are required to introduce FOGO by 2030 and glass only collection by 2027.
This will result in a standard four-bin service statewide featuring red (household rubbish), yellow (mixed recyclables), lime green (FOGO) and purple (glass) bins.
In addition, an allocation of $300,000 in the Council's 2024-25 budget will enable planning to continue for a new Resource Recovery Centre and Waste Recycling Hub in the region, with $4 million earmarked in both 2025-26 and 2026-27 to build the facility.
The existing Geelong Resource Recovery Centre in North Geelong is also slated to receive a major upgrade to improve safety at the site.
Mayor Trent Sullivan:
This four-year budget is an important milestone in the Council's journey towards achieving its circular economy goals.Waste management is one of the fundamental roles of councils and our strategy is to treat waste as a resource by collecting and re-using as much of it as we can.
By doing this, we'll have far less waste ending up in landfill.
The decision to invest so heavily in waste facilities upgrades in this budget will pave the way for some major changes in the way we collect and manage waste, which will result in better outcomes for the environment.
The Council's draft budget is available for community feedback until 5pm on Wednesday 22 May.
