Consultation Closed - Draft Waste Management Plan

A range of COVID-safe community consultation opportunities have been scheduled for January and February 2021 and all Baw Baw community members are encouraged to get involved to make sure our new Waste Management Plan works for everyone.

Saturday 9 January 2021 

• Pop-up stall, Rawson General Store - 11am to 1pm

Monday 11 January 2021 

• Online (Zoom meeting) - 7pm to 8pm
• https://bawbawshire-vic-gov-au.zoom.us/j/94214439051

Please note - your name and email address may be visible to other participants.

Thursday 14 January 2021

• Pop-up stall, Drouin Skatepark - 11am to 1pm

Wednesday 20 January 2021

• Pop-up stall, Longwarry Hall - 4pm to 6pm

Friday 22 January 2021

• Online (Zoom meeting) - 2pm to 3pm
• https://bawbawshire-vic-gov-au.zoom.us/j/92591663623 

Please note - your name and email address may be visible to other participants.

Saturday 23 January 2021

• Pop-up stall, Yarragon Craft & Produce Market - 8am to 1pm

Monday 25 January 2021

• Pop-up stall, Thorpdale Bakery - 9am - 10am

Thursday 28 January 2021

• Pop-up stall, Neerim South IGA - 3pm to 5pm

Friday 29 January 2021

• Online (Zoom meeting) - 10am to 11am

• https://bawbawshire-vic-gov-au.zoom.us/j/96830434456

Please note - your name and email address may be visible to other participants.

Thursday 4 February 2021

• Online (Zoom meeting) - 7pm to 8pm
• https://bawbawshire-vic-gov-au.zoom.us/j/99102765168

Please note - your name and email address may be visible to other participants. 

Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. Your thoughts and ideas are highly valued and will ultimately form part of Council’s decision making. Council Officers will consolidate comments and feedback and consider all submissions to assist in making further recommendations to Council.

We’re here to help! For more information about this project, please contact Council’s Environment and Resource Recovery team on 5624 2411 or by email at Environment@bawbawshire.vic.gov.au.

The previous Waste Management Plan (WMP) was for the period of 2010-2020 and will expire at the end of 2020. To ensure Council has direction and a strategic plan in place, a review of the previous WMP was completed to inform the new five-year plan for 2020-2025.  

The revised draft  WMP 2020-25 provides the community with information on Council’s waste policies and plans, as well as regional, State and Federal policies, plans and regulation. The draft WMP also provides an overview of Council’s current, waste and recycling services, waste and recycling infrastructure, waste and resources generated, community engagement, and Council performance. Additionally, the draft WMP explores challenges and opportunities for the municipality including, waste avoidance and minimisation, community development, collection and recovery, waste and recycling trends, funding opportunities, performance and monitoring, and assessment of options.

Most importantly, the WMP needs to detail and adequately plan for the Victorian Government’s Recycling Victoria: a new economy, circular economy policy that was released in February 2020, along with a 10-year action plan to improve state-wide recycling infrastructure and services.

Recycling Victoria outlines the following changes to waste services that Council must fulfil. These include:

1. Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO): The provision to introduce food organics into the kerbside garden organics (green waste) bin service by 2030.
2. Glass Separation: The provision to introduce a separate recovery system for glass to remove glass from commingled recycling bins by 2027.
3. Bin Lid Colours:  Upgrading kerbside bin lids to ensure they are consistent with colours specified by the Victorian Government.

Baw Baw Shire Council will introduce food organics into the kerbside garden organics (green waste) bin service by 2023.

In the recent 2020/21 waste audit, it was identified that 43% of Baw Baw Shire resident garbage bins are made up of food.  Food can include fruit and vegetables, but also cooked and/or raw meat, seafood, dairy and wheat, including bread, pasta, rice.

Introducing a FOGO service will allow for residents to reduce their garbage bin content by nearly half, which will allow for the bin to be picked up less frequently. In 2018/2019 38 Victorian Council’s had provided a FOGO service or were in the process of providing FOGO to their community.  Ten of these Victorian Council’s that had implemented a FOGO service and changed the bin pickup frequency to a weekly FOGO and fortnightly garbage clearly identified the highest landfill diversion rates.

It has also been identified through Council’s extensive transition planning this year that a weekly FOGO and fortnightly garbage is slightly cheaper than a weekly garbage and fortnightly FOGO.

Therefore, the preferred kerbside service for FOGO is: 

• weekly FOGO collection service, including the provision of a kitchen caddy.
• fortnightly garbage.
• fortnightly recycling.

For Baw Baw Shire residents without a kerbside service, Council will continue to support composting at the source via its existing compost bin rebate program scheme and will consider providing alternative FOGO drop off locations, such as at our transfer stations. There is also the option to up-size your garbage bin if you require. 

Baw Baw Shire Council will introduce a separate recovery system for glass to remove glass from recycling bins by 2026.  

Currently glass in the commingled recycling bins is causing contamination due to glass breaking. To address the issue, the Victorian Government has announced that all Victorians must have access to a separate glass recycling service by 2027; resulting in glass not being accepted in recycling bins. This new glass service can be either:

• a 120L glass-only bin included in kerbside collection services, picked up monthly.
• local glass drop-off locations.

The Victorian Government is also introducing a Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) in 2022/23. This will result in community members being able to recycle their bottles and cans at local glass drop-off locations to received a .10c refund per item. How the community engage with the CDS service will ultimately influence which service Council decides to introduce. 

Baw Baw Shire Council will upgrade kerbside bin lids to ensure they are consistent with colours specified by the Victorian Government. 

To ensure consistency and to reduce confusion within the community, the Victorian Government has developed a standardised colouring system for Victoria’s kerbside bin lids.  The standard of Victorian bin lid colours is:

• Red for garbage
• Yellow for recycling
• Light green for green organics (to become FOGO in 2022/23)
• Purple for a glass bin (if introduced)

Currently Council has achieved the compliance for all red garbage bin lids, although require updates to some recycling and green organics bin lids.