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New Waste Disposal System Planned

3/1/2012

Have you seen the new proposals to further reduce and recycle rubbish on the Northern Beaches?

As a joint initiative between Manly, Mosman, Pittwater and Warringah Councils the proposal will result in the average house or ‘single dwelling’ garbage service being:

One mixed food & vegetation bin. The mixed food & vegetation will be converted into compost and COLLECTED WEEKLY
A free kitchen tidy and cornstarch bags delivered to all homes to contain food waste before its put in the bin.
One mixed recycling bin for paper and recyclable containers COLLECTED FORTNIGHTLY
A general waste bin COLLECTED FORTNIGHTLY. In units/apartments ALL bins will be COLLECTED WEEKLY.

Sure, it will take a bit of time to get used to, but the concept of capturing food scraps and reusing them as compost is another logical step in reducing our waste. The cost being shared by four councils rather than one also makes logical sense. What do you think? Do you like the idea or do you have concerns?

2 Comments

A Roper

6/1/2012 11:48:03 am

I understand vegetation, but mixed food for compost? What is the description of mixed food?

Cathy Griffin, Councillor and member of the Manly Council Waste Committee whcih is chaired by Councillor Barbara Aird

6/1/2012 03:09:23 pm

A Roper and other concerned citizens of Manly, if the citizens of Penrith can successfully adopt to such a change in waste collection services then I am confident the people of Manly can too!

The NSW State Government has increased the ‘landfill levy’ and this, in addition to increased landfill operating costs and the cost of transporting waste to landfill site means Councils have to consider ways to reduce the amount of domestic waste currently going to landfill and therefore keep the cost to ratepayers down. Food waste constitutes the greatest volume currently going to landfill that could be diverted to an Alternative Waste Technology (AWT) operation for conversion to compost and then beneficial reuse. Penrith use all the ‘product’ created from the collection of its domestic fortnightly organics service on their sporting fields and gardens.

Manly as one of the SHOROC Councils, (Mosman, Manly, Warringah and Pittwater) is working together to develop an Alternative Waste Technology (AWT) operation at the SHOROC owned and operated Kimbriki Resource Recovery Centre on Mona Vale Rd near Terry Hills.
Such an operation requires organic waste, which includes food waste, to be collected and taken to Kimbriki for processing. The resulting compost will be reused. This will save the waste from the Northern Beaches and Mosman being trucked to the nearest landfill site south of Sydney near Goulbourn. (but not as far as Canberra!!)

Also Manly remains one of the few Councils that continues to operate its own waste collection service, that is, the trucks are Council owned and the garbos Council employees. The ‘common collection service’ does not mean that Manly will stop operating its own waste collection servicebut it does change where Manly Council takes its waste. This ensures Manly ratepayers a superior and flexible service and keeps the costs from escalating. The difference will be what is put in each of the bins and what colour the lids will be.
For those really interested in Waste matters you can read the NSW Government report on this link

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/warr/101034RevWasteStrat.pdf

The executive summary makes interesting reading...here is an extract....

The Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy (WARR Strategy), which is required by the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2001 (WARR Act), has been effective in significantly increasing resource recovery across NSW, while protecting the environment. For example, the amount of materials recycled in NSW has increased by 80% since 2002–03. This represents an additional 4.2 million tonnes of materials collected in 2008–09 than were collected in 2002–03 (total recovery in 2002 was 5.3 million tonnes, while, as indicated above, in 2008–09 it was 9.5 million tonnes). The NSW State Plan 2010 (State Plan) has adopted the targets for municipal, commercial and industrial (C&I) and construction and demolition (C&D) waste in the WARR Strategy, which has given extra emphasis on driving improvement.

New Waste Disposal System Planned

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