Hundreds of Melbourne Homes Might Soon be Getting Free Food Waste Bins
It's part of the City of Melbourne's plan to become zero waste by 2030.
If you live in the inner city, next time rubbish collection day rolls around, you could be wheeling out three bins to the kerb — and one of them could be filled with food waste. The City of Melbourne announced today that it's considering trialling compost bins in a bid to reduce the amount of local waste sent to landfill.
While the trial still needs to be voted on at a council meeting next Tuesday, April 16, if it goes ahead it will see new bins rolled out to 700 Kensington homes before the end of the year. The bins could be filled with garden and food waste and would be collected once a week.
At the moment, food scraps make up 50 percent of the council's household waste, with an estimated 12,000 tonnes of the stuff heading to landfill between 2016–17. So, if the trial is successful and rolled out to all council residencies, it could see the amount of waste sent to landfill halved.
Th council hasn't announced how it'll use the food waste just yet, but similar trials in the city have seen the scraps processed and transformed into compost for use in Victorian agricultural and horticultural projects.
The food waste bins are part of the council's plan to be zero waste by 2030, which is outlined in its broader Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy. Other measures it's looking to implement this year include shared waste hubs for businesses in the city and the removal of some commercial bins, freeing up laneways and allowing for the launch of community events and businesses in them instead.
The City of Melbourne's announcement follows similar trials in City of Darebin and Perth in 2017 and a more recent trial by the Moreland City Council. The City of Sydney will also be trialling food waste collection later this year. Glen Eira and Hume councils already allow for food scraps to be places in their green waste bins.
Food waste is not just an issue for Australians, either, with OzHarvest reporting that around 1.3billion tonnes of food is lost or wasted around the world each year.
The food waste trial will be voted on at a City of Melbourne council meeting next Tuesday. If successful, the food waste bins will be rolled out to 700 residents in Kensington later this year.
