Page 1622 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 May 2017
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Minister Fitzharris to deliver the first green bin in Duffy. At that time around one-third of households in Weston Creek and Kambah had registered for a bin.
At the end of April there were 4,800 registrations, which represents 44 per cent of households in the pilot area, and shows how much Canberrans have embraced this initiative in its early stages. Around 36 per cent of those households also claim concession cards and did not have to pay the one-off $50 deposit for their bin.
Some households and apartment residents will not want another bin, with many preferring to compost their garden waste or continue to drop it off at the tip at no cost, which is fantastic and will continue to be encouraged. Other residents will prefer to use private providers or even both the government bin and other private providers because of the size of their garden.
While the program is being run on an opt-in basis, the 240 litre green waste bins will play a significant role in diverting the approximately 5,000 tonnes of green waste that have been going to landfill every year. Collections began in April, and it was fantastic to see the line of light-green lidded bins lining the streets of Kambah around my house. I have noted when leaving to go to work in the morning that some residents are still getting used to which day the bins are being collected, but clear information has been provided to residents via mail and is on the green bins website about the pickup schedule. I am sure they will get used to it over time as the fortnightly collections continue.
The green bins service has already been very useful to southsiders over the past couple of weeks as the autumn leaves fall from deciduous trees. This has encouraged me to spend more time cleaning up my garden, as I am sure it has for many others. This is particularly important because the ACT government is working to encourage people to clean up leaves and garden waste as part of our ACT healthy waterways campaign.
This is another part of our strategy to promote education and active recycling. The campaign encourages residents not to sweep or blow leaves or grass clippings into gutters and stormwater drains because as they decompose they release polluting nutrients into our waterways. The campaign suggests turning leaves into mulch to protect your soil or compost for your garden, take them to a green waste recycling facility or, if you have one, put them in your green waste bin. As the green bin pilot program rolls out, this will help to support our ongoing campaign to improve the health of our waterways, including Lake Tuggeranong.
The result of the program will also see a reduction in both greenhouse gas emissions and the amount of waste that goes to landfill. Grass clippings, leaves, branches, flowers, prunings and weeds should not belong in landfill and it needs to be properly processed. The green waste that is saved in this program will be transported to the Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre, where the waste will be properly processed and turned into mulch, which can then be bought and reused again in all of our gardens and backyards.
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