Sunshine Coast residents have spoken loudly and clearly: they want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and have given the green thumbs up for an opt-out garden waste bin service so they can do their bit for our environment.
Community feedback from more than 7,500 residents revealed overwhelming support for the garden waste bin service, which will be expanded to households across the Sunshine Coast from July 2022 to create a cleaner, greener environment.
Sunshine Coast Council gave the green tick of approval to the project at the July 22 Ordinary Meeting.
Garden clippings, weeds and leaves will be diverted from our landfills, extending their life, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and potentially saving property owners paying the full cost of the Queensland Government Waste Levy.
Almost 30 per cent of households already use the garden bin service. With an increased number of collections, garden bin costs will come down for current and new users from July 2022.
KEY POINTS
* An opt-out garden waste service will start for Sunshine Coast residential households from July 2022.
* Garden clippings, weeds and leaves can go into the lime-green lidded garden waste bin.
* The garden waste bin will be collected fortnightly, on alternate weeks to recycling bin collection.
* Garden waste will continue to be accepted at resource recovery centre.
Sunshine Coast Council Service Delivery Portfolio Councillor Christian Dickson said the community feedback on recycling and how we should mange waste in the future was vital in council’s decision-making process.
“Our community feedback made it very clear that diverting organic waste from landfill and protecting our environment are very important to our community,” Cr Dickson said.
“Results from the online survey revealed 84 per cent of respondents agreed it was very important for council to provide a service to reduce organic waste in landfill and convert recovered organic material to useful by-products.
“When asked about a garden waste bin, 74 per cent of respondents supported an opt-out garden waste service be rolled out region-wide, because it was good for our community and the environment.
“The feedback also revealed 83 per cent of survey respondents supported council implementing a Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) bin service, which is something council will continue to investigate.”
Council will keep residents informed of planned changes, which won’t start until July 2022.