Lake Mac residents have helped divert almost 200,000 tonnes of food and garden waste from landfill in the past five years – the equivalent of 700 Airbus A380s, or almost four Sydney Harbour Bridges.
Lake Macquarie City Council Manager Waste Services Paul Collins said data compiled to mark the five-year anniversary of collecting food waste in kerbside green bins demonstrated the significant environmental and economic benefits of shifting to greener ways.
"We've collected 195,000 tonnes of what we call FOGO – food organics and garden organics – since the introduction of the three bins in July 2018," he said.
"That has yielded about 94,000 tonnes of compost, returning vital nutrients to the soil, but equally importantly, it has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 312,000 tonnes."
Mr Collins explained that such a large volume of organic waste created vast amounts of methane, if sent to landfill rather than being composted.
Food and garden waste is sent to a processing facility at Awaba to become compost, and its diversion from landfill also reduces the amount Council must pay in NSW Government waste levies.
Mr Collins said the five-year levy savings equated to about $28.3 million.
"Diverting this waste from landfill is also helping us move closer to meeting the NSW Environmental Protection Authority's waste diversion targets," he said.
Council Waste Strategy Coordinator Hal Dobbins said that while some residents found the change challenging initially, most had since embraced the green bin and realised its benefits.
"Every little scrap of food and garden waste we collect in the green bin counts," he said.
Despite the huge gains, even more can be done.
Auditing of bins across the city shows food scraps still comprise about 17 per cent of waste going into the garbage bin.
"It basically means we're unnecessarily sending more than 6000 tonnes of food waste to landfill each year," Mr Dobbins said.
Lake Macquarie Mayor Kay Fraser said residents were doing an amazing job overall.
"I'm really proud of the way they have risen to the challenge, changed their habits to accommodate the three-bin system and helped us become some of the best food and green waste recyclers in Australia," she said.
