How to kerb bin contamination

DO you know what can and cannot go in the City of Greater Bendigo’s green organics bins?

Even though it’s been a few weeks since the municipality switched the frequency of organics and general waste collections, there appears to be confusion about what can be placed in the green-topped bins.

Coordinator of strategy and change at the City, Bridgette McDougall, said while people are “generally pretty good” with the rules around waste, others might need to update their awareness.

“We’re either finding people being ridiculous and it’s grossly contaminated with just a random assortment of household waste and recycling, or they’re really good at it,” said Ms McDougall.

“We want them to know that there’s other stuff you can put in there.”

Certain things you might have thought best put in the recycling can be placed in the green bins, according to Ms McDougall, including some cardboard like pizza and takeaway boxes.

“The advice that we give everyone is to really look at what you’re putting in each of your bins and make sure that you’re sorting correctly,” she said.

“We do want to make sure that what is going to landfill is only what genuinely needs to go to landfill.”

The City of Greater Bendigo residents can upsize their recycling bin for free. They cannot upsize their red general waste bin for free, unless they have a medical exemption from a doctor or specialist providing evidence they are generating large amounts of medical waste.

“We do hear from families that that might not always work for them, so it’s handy for them to know that soft plastics drop-off is available at our transfer stations and the Eaglehawk Recycle Shop,” Ms McDougall said.

“You can also take things like textiles there for free, large amounts of polystyrene for free, [and] e-waste needs to go to a transfer station to be recycled.”

For more information on what can go in organics bins visit the City of Greater Bendigo’s website.

9am EDIT: 

The original version of this story said the City of Greater Bendigo offered free upsizing of the red topped general waste bin. This was incorrect and the Bendigo Times apologies for the mistake.