At its August Council Meeting on Tuesday, Greater Shepparton City Council noted a report outlining further opportunities for improving the region's kerbside collection service through existing alternative disposal means for recoverable/recyclable material.
In Summary
- Report identifies key opportunities to enhance kerbside collection services in Greater Shepparton, including better use of existing recycling and disposal options.
- Survey results indicate that residents are concerned about environmental impacts but underutilise available services like the 360L yellow lid bin, nappy collection, textile disposal points and FOGO bins.
- Council encourages increased awareness and education on waste management, highlighting the importance of using the complimentary services to reduce landfill waste and odour issues.
- Mayor Shane Sali emphasises the importance of ongoing community education on waste management options and supports the initiative for more informed decision-making.
The report followed a Notice of Motion from the May Council Meeting seeking community feedback on the fortnightly red lid bin collection.
A survey was made available on the Shaping Greater Shepp website in June this year which received 1,836 responses. The survey, which incorporated a series of single and multiple-choice responses as well as free text, provided valuable insights into how residents utilise their red lid bin and the opportunities for improving their adaptation to the fortnightly collection service.
The feedback showed, on average, residents demonstrated a concern for the environmental impacts of waste management but were not utilising alternative or new recoverable/recycling options. Given this, there is significant scope to improve a households' utilisation of the red lid bin within a fortnightly collection service. The report detailed four opportunities for doing this:
- Utilisation of the 360L yellow lid bin. In the 2024/2025 financial year, residents can upsize to a 360 litre yellow lid bin for no upsize fee or additional service charge.
- Utilisation of the Nappy Collection Service to ensure residents are able to dispose of their nappies and incontinence aids conveniently through the weekly complimentary service.
- Utilisation of the Textile Disposal Points. Residents can dispose of textiles at any of the Resource Recovery Centres across Greater Shepparton at no cost.
- Increased education and awareness of not disposing of organics within the red lid bin, and utilising the weekly Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) green lid bin service to mitigate odour concerns in the red lid bin.
Of the survey respondents, 464 said they were not utilising the complimentary nappy collection service. Using the weekly nappy collection service will immediately relieve these households of concerns related to bin fullness.
There were 996 and 149 respondents that do not dispose of plastic meat trays and paper/cardboard in the yellow lid bin. This could indicate that households may be exceeding their 240 litre yellow lid bin, and have not upsized to a 360 litre yellow lid bin.
There were 391 respondents that do not utilise the textile disposal points located at Resource Recovery Centres across Greater Shepparton. These sites can be used to dispose of textiles at no cost, with those items being sent for recycling.
There were 117 respondents that dispose of organic material in the red lid bin which likely contributes towards odour concerns in a fortnightly collection. The utilisation of the FOGO bin for weekly collection is critical to preventing organic material being sent to landfill, while providing direct benefit to households with the weekly collection.
Mayor, Councillor Shane Sali, highlighted how he will always be supportive of seeking additional information in regard to waste at the Council Meeting.
"This is an education journey that we have to take our community on, this report has further heightened how important it is for us to get information out there to community who perhaps aren't aware of the 360 litre recycling bin, nappy collection and opt in opt out component of the FOGO," he said.
"I am pretty impressed with the information that has come back, I will always be supportive of councillors seeking additional information."
