Greater Bendigo's household kerbside general waste bin collections will change from weekly to fortnightly, and kerbside organics bin collections will change from fortnightly to weekly from next Monday, February 5, 2024.
The City collects waste and recycling from more than 53,000 residential properties. In the last financial year, the City collected more than 23,600 tonnes of general waste and more than 15,000 tonnes of organic waste from residential properties.
City of Greater Bendigo Mayor Cr Andrea Metcalf said the change applied to every residential property and was a simple swap, meaning residents would put their general waste bin out fortnightly on the same week as they currently put out their organics bin and their organics bin would go out weekly.
"This is the biggest change to the City's waste management services since the introduction of the organics collection in 2017. It follows an audit of the City's kerbside bin collections, which showed local general waste bins contain a significant 31 per cent of food and garden material that should be going into the organics bin and not to landfill," Cr Metcalf said.
"Making the switch to weekly organics collections is expected to result in a further 7,000 tonnes of organic material being diverted from landfill each year.
"Reducing the amount of organic material in the waste stream is important because the Eaglehawk Landfill has almost reached capacity making it necessary for the City to transport all general waste to a landfill outside of Greater Bendigo.
"Transporting general waste outside of Greater Bendigo drives up costs, which are passed directly onto ratepayers via the waste charge on your rates notice so making this change will help to minimise future cost increases.
"Food and garden waste are valuable resources that can be recycled into a high-quality compost for use by farms, parks and gardens, while decomposing food in landfill emits methane, a damaging greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere and contributes to climate change.
"The changes are also in-line with the Victorian Government Circular Economy policies and plan: Recycling Victoria: A new economy, which has set key actions for all Victorian councils to have zero organic material going to landfill by 2030. This target has also informed the key objectives noted in the City of Greater Bendigo Climate Change and Environment Strategy 2021-2026."
It can be confusing remembering what bins you need to put out on bin night. So, if you can't remember what bin is due for collection, it's easy to find out by checking your address on the City's website.
To find out what things should go in what bin and how to dispose of other items, download a copy of the A-Z Guide for Waste Disposal.
