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This article was published on Wednesday, 20 January, 2016. The information contained within may be out of date or inaccurate.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.

Rubbish Result: Waste contamination rates up for December

Contamination in November was 2.79 per cent and in December was 4.18 per cent.

Greater Shepparton City Council’s Manager Environment, Greg McKenzie, said while the result was disappointing it was not surprising considering kerbside collection waste overall generally rises during the Christmas / New Year period.

“Compared to the same time in 2014 though, the rates are much lower. Before the expansion of the urban organic collections service and the kitchen caddy system, we were looking at rates of five to eight per cent contamination of the green lid bin so we are still quite happy with the overall results,” said Mr McKenzie.

“In November we had 20.79 tonnes of waste contamination in the green lid (organics) bin going to landfill out of 746.14 total tonnes of organics collected from kerbsides,” said Mr McKenzie. “In December that increased to 26.17 tonnes of waste collected via the green lid bin that was sent to landfill out of 626.76 total tonnes collected.”

“Unfortunately when the green lid bin is contaminated with non-organic matter it ends up contaminating the whole truck load and instead of being turned into compost the waste goes to landfill. For every tonne of waste that goes to landfill the cost is $125 which ultimately gets passed on to ratepayers,” said Mr McKenzie.

“Most likely the increase in contamination of the green lid bin during December occurred because people are generating more waste and look for other places to dispose of materials that may not fit into the red lid bin,” he said. “People can dispose of polystyrene and cardboard for free at the three Resource Recovery Centres in the municipality so there is no reason to contaminate the organics bin with these materials.”

“The main contaminants of the green lid bin in December were plastics such as nappies, packaging, plastic bags, and glass and aluminium which should never be placed in the green lid bin.”

If you receive a sticker on your green lid bin about contamination please take the time to check what you are putting in the bin. More information can be found at www.greatershepparton.com.au