The rubbish revolution: time we think differently about waste

There are also significant costs for our environment and financially for our ratepayers.

For instance, more than 24,000 tonnes of waste was sent to landfill in the 2021-2022 financial year with disposal of waste costing our ratepayers $28,000 every day.

Almost every single person uses their bin every day.

Construction of the new cell, where we dispose of our waste, at the Ballarat Regional Landfill will cost $4 million and is expected to be full by the end of 2025.

This entire landfill is expected to reach capacity by 2040. We will then need to consider other options, which could include trucking waste to other landfills or sourcing alternate options.

These costs will escalate if we don't find new and innovative ways to sort our waste and keep as much as possible out of landfill.

The state government is introducing a standardised waste collection system across Victoria.

As a result, all local government areas, including the City of Ballarat, will move to a new glass service and a new food organics and garden organics (FOGO) service in the near future. This means all Victorians will need to sort their waste into household mixed recycling, glass, FOGO and their general household waste, with some councils already making the change.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Scroll to the bottom to have your say

This change is designed to improve our recycling and reduce waste going to landfill.

A standard statewide approach will ensure a simpler and consistent way to separate household waste and recycling.

This will also improve the quality of our recyclables, leading to more of our recyclables being recovered and transformed into something new.

What this new four-stream system looks like for our municipality has not been finalised.

Late last year, we asked the community to help us shape the future of our kerbside waste and recycling collections by completing a short survey over a five-week period.

More than 2170 responses were received to the online and in-person survey.

Based on your feedback, next month we will present a range of kerbside collection options of how the changes may look for additional community feedback.

This will include options for how frequently we collect your bins, their size and the cost.

You will be able to help us decide on a waste service that works for our community, while balancing the costs and benefits.

Once we've taken your feedback on the options into consideration, the Kerbside Transition Plan will be presented to council later this year.

If adopted, the City of Ballarat will prepare a timeline for the introduction of the four-stream waste and recycling collection service.

The state government's changes to waste and recycling are an exciting opportunity for our municipality to design our future kerbside collections so that our waste becomes more of a resource.

We want as much of our waste as possible to be repurposed so that it has a second lease on life, rather than being buried in a giant cell in the ground.

A new FOGO collection will be a crucial asset in our goal to reduce waste going to landfill.

Food waste makes up 42 per cent of our household waste, which adds up to an estimated 10,000 tonnes of food that is thrown out by our residents every year.

Food waste is expensive.

It costs us all to send this large volume of food waste to landfill.

Landfill charges, set by the state government, have increased substantially in recent years and are expected to continue to increase in the future.

Diverting food waste from landfill will reduce landfill costs for City of Ballarat residents.

Burying food waste in landfill is also harmful to the environment.

Diverting food waste from the household waste bin will reduce the volume of methane, a powerful gas that contributes to climate change, that is generated when organic waste breaks down in landfill.

Collecting FOGO, including fruit and vegetable scraps, meat, bones, seafood and eggshells, through our kerbside collections and keeping it out of landfill is one of the most simple and effective things we can do for the environment.

Under the changes, you will be able to add food organics into your green waste bin alongside your garden organics which will divert food waste from landfill and help the environment.

Food and green waste can be transformed into compost - which means it is being recycled into something new that can be used.

As a council, we have already made significant inroads into improving our glass recycling.

When SKM Recycling collapsed we quickly moved to separate glass from mixed recycling in 2019, introducing a Pass on Glass system, to ensure our recycling wouldn't end up in landfill.

This system to separate our glass has received a high up-take from our community - with the latest figures showing 3860 tonnes of glass jars and bottles have been recycled into new glass bottles since its inception. On average, glass now makes up just three per cent of household waste going to landfill.

We are committed to building on this success to achieve a brighter, more sustainable future for how we manage our waste. Goal one in the City of Ballarat's Council Plan 2021-2025 is to achieve 'an environmentally sustainable future' for our community.

Let's not waste this opportunity to introduce a more effective kerbside collection that will provide direct benefits to our community and our environment for many generations to come.

Cr Des Hudson is mayor of the City of Ballarat.