Ballarat could move to a four-bin recycling system along with the rest of Victoria under a new state government plan.
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The state government on Friday announced a $127 million fund to support all 79 Victorian councils to buy new bins and improve drop-off facilities to make the switch to the four-bin system.
Under the plan, the four-bin system would become standard across all Victorian households by 2030 with separate bins for general waste, cardboard and aluminium, glass and green waste.
The state government said councils would share in more than $86 million to deliver the new four-bin system with standardised bin colours of red, yellow, purple and green.
However, City of Ballarat Mayor Daniel Moloney said he hoped the new glass-only bin would be an optional service for those that wanted it.
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"In my case, I wouldn't personally want to have a glass bin. I think it would just take up space at my house that I could do without," he said.
"I'm really happy with the current system where I have a small tub at home that takes me about five or six months to fill up and I'm happy to take it to the transfer bins.
"We'll have to discuss it further, but it's something that I know will be definitely appealing to some residents but not all, so we might need to consider an opt-in option, potentially, and that's been the case for green waste at different times."
Cr Moloney said the challenge for Ballarat was to find the appropriate use for the recycled glass.
"At the moment, we're crushing it and it's going into road and footpath base but, as our CEO rightly points out, that's still putting it in the ground in a different way, it's not actually really reusing the glass. It's less bad than putting it in landfill but it's still going in the ground," he said.
"If anything, I hope a lot of this funding goes toward helping councils find better localised reuses for the materials."
Cr Moloney said Ballarat's current system of having several drop-off locations for glass worked well.
"I think we should also at some point consider even more communal bins as well. This is something that works incredibly well throughout New Zealand where every suburb will have two or three locations where you just take some of those recyclables such as glass," he said.
Wendouree resident Danny, who asked for his last name not to be published, said the four-bin system was a great idea.
"It would make it easier for me at home because I don't have to come here or Lucas to get rid of it," he said.
"I come down and do the banking for work anyway, it's just up the road so it's not really a nuisance."
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