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This article was published on Friday, 7 July, 2017. The information contained within may be out of date or inaccurate. News articles and media releases older than 60 days are archived for future reference.

Big difference in green waste contamination rates

For the month of June, 512 tonnes of food and garden waste was composted and sent back to earth. The common items that continue to contaminate organic waste include plastic bags, nappies, garden pots and building materials.

Greater Shepparton City Council Acting Director Infrastructure Michael Freeman thanked residents for the big improvement compared to last year. “In June 2016 we had a contaimation rate of 9.18 per cent and within a year the community have improved by 6.78 per cent,” he said.

“Disposing of your organic waste in the green lid bin has many benefits, primarily protecting our environment and diverting waste that would otherwise go into landfill.”

“When dumping organic waste in landfill it has major consequences as the material decomposes with minimal oxygen. This produces odorous gases and methane which has a global warming potential 25 times greater than carbon dioxide. Dumping food and garden waste in landfill is also a waste of a useful resource which could be used to enrich our soils and help to grow healthy crops and pastures that produce food for everyone.”

“Residents have done a great job in separating their waste and maintaining a low contamination rate, let’s keep plastic bags and rubbish out of the green bins to ensure the organics collected from households is free from contamination,” said Mr Freeman.

For more information about contamination, what can and can’t go in the green lid bin and more visit http://greatershepparton.com.au/animals-environment-and-waste/waste-and-recycling/organic-green-lid-bin