A rethink on recyclables

WE all know how important it is to get recycling right. It’s integral to our region’s sustainability goals, and we must champion it in ways that are financially sustainable too.

The City of Greater Geelong is urging the State Government to rethink its push for mandatory kerbside glass-only recycling bins for households.

Geelong is among 28 Victorian councils voicing concerns against this additional bin, a stance formalised in a co-signed letter to Victorian Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos late last year.

The unified opposition was based on findings of an investigation led by Maroondah Council into how glass recycling bins would impact its municipality and other councils around the state.

The investigation considered both the potential benefits and impacts of an additional bin for residents and the environmental impacts of recycling.

It found that the additional kerbside collection was not financially viable and would cost a typical council approximately $4 million to implement, payable by ratepayers.

For Greater Geelong, we estimate it would cost $8.5 million to purchase and deliver the new bins alone, plus millions more dollars in additional collection costs each year.

As a council, it is imperative that we look at how these costs would impact our residents. Extra costs and charges would put additional financial pressure on our ratepayers, many of whom are already struggling during our current cost-of-living crisis.

It’s important to remember that our existing kerbside recycling program already accepts glass bottles and jars, including cosmetic and medicine containers.

Residents can continue to recycle these in their yellow bins by ensuring they are clean and free of food with lids removed.

Instead of a new bin, our joint proposal highlighted some alternative measures that the State Government could implement to reduce waste and improve circularity.

We have already seen fantastic success of the State Government’s Container Deposit Scheme.

Greater Geelong has 23 drop-off locations where residents can easily dispose of eligible aluminium, glass, plastic and carton drink containers.

If the scheme expanded to include additional bottles like wine and liquor bottles, this would provide another solution to reduce the rate of glass waste in our city.

This would ensure a lower rate of contamination in glass captured and wouldn’t pass the costs back onto our residents.

We see this as an opportunity to expand the use of existing infrastructure and utilise services that our community is already aware of.

We are always looking at ways to effectively reduce our waste and minimise our impact on the environment.

Council has already implemented a range of projects with circularity as a core focus.

We have found innovative ways to recycle crushed glass, using it as a replacement for sand in our road construction projects.

These projects use a mix of recycled materials that have been diverted from landfill, including reclaimed rubber from old tyres and recycled plastics in our asphalt mixture.

This initiative has kept thousands of tonnes of glass, plastic and other waste out of landfill, and has reduced the greenhouse gas emissions of our road projects by up to 30 per cent.

As a council, we will continue to explore new solutions to reduce and recycle waste, while ensuring the best value for money possible for our ratepayers. We urge the State Government to listen to our advocacy for the sake of residents.

Cr Stretch Kontelj

Mayor,

City of Greater Geelong