More than 7000 survey results from Yarra Ranges residents will help Council to shape its future waste services, as we prepare for the State Government’s new bin policy.

The State Government has released its Recycling Victoria Policy, setting targets for reducing waste over the coming ten years.

These targets include changing the waste services delivered to community members from Council, adding in:

• A food and garden organics (FOGO) services for all households, rather than putting food scraps in the landfill bin
• A glass recycling service for all households, separate from the regular recycling bin
• Changing bin lids to match standardised, state-wide colours for services.

Ahead of these changes, which we’re looking to introduce next year, we surveyed the community about current services and how these new services could be rolled out.

Yarra Ranges Mayor, Jim Child, said that Council will be using the community’s feedback to shape a Draft Waste Plan, which will be released for feedback shortly.

“Our survey asked how community members would like to see their bin service change and how frequently they’d like the new bins collected,” Cr Child said.

“We heard, overwhelmingly, that community members would prefer glass collection in a wheelie bin, rather than a drop-off point in a central location.

“While most people told us that they would prefer a weekly rubbish collection, with a fortnightly FOGO collection, that majority shifted in our webinars, when the food organics component was clearly explained.

“We’ll use this feedback – which included thoughts on hard waste, difficult-to-recycle items, and composting – to create our Draft Waste Plan.

“This plan will be released for feedback in coming months, as a check-in with the community to make sure we’ve got the balance right.

“After the plan is finished, we expect to start the rollout of the new bin service towards the end of 2023.”