WITH the weather soon to be a little cooler, being out in the garden will be a whole lot more enjoyable and Sunshine Coast Council is offering residents the opportunity to care for their garden beds with a layer of free, nutrient-rich mulch.
Bring your trailer or ute to resource recovery centres at Beerwah, Caloundra, Buderim and Nambour to pick up your free load which can be used as a layer over gardens in preparation for the cooler months.
The offer is open to all residential and commercial customers.
Sunshine Coast Environment and Liveability Portfolio Councillor Maria Suarez said an abundance of mulch was now ready thanks to the new garden organics bin being embraced regionwide.
“Once collected, our region’s garden organics are taken to a council resource recovery centre to be processed,” Cr Suarez said.
“When you recycle your garden waste, it gets turned into mulch – creating new life from old.
“The material is ground into a mulch and placed in windrows to ‘mature’.
“Between July 2022 – when the expanded service began – to February 2023, more than 14,800 tonnes of kerbside-collected garden organics have been diverted from landfill and recycled and is now ready for collection and reuse by our community to place on their gardens.”
Cr Suarez said a process was in place to clean up garden waste loads.
“A recent campaign to educate the community on how to use the garden bin correctly, coupled with a significant decontamination effort, has produced a usable end product.
“From garden waste to garden resource, mulch is a great way to add nutrients back into the soil while helping to stabilise it, preventing it washing away.”
Cr Suarez encouraged everyone to play their part for a cleaner, greener environment and sustainable future.
“We have a goal to be a zero net emissions organisation and low carbon region and decomposing waste is a big contributor to greenhouse gases,” she said.
“The more organic material we put into landfill, the more greenhouse gases we produce over the long term and the worse it is for the environment.
“Repurposing garden waste into mulch also helps to fuel our circular economy, where products and materials keep being reused in the market for as long as possible.
“We thank our community for playing their part for a cleaner, greener environment and sustainable future.”
Search “mulch and crushed concrete sales” on council’s website for availability before you visit.
Locations of our resource recovery centres, and their opening times are also available on the site.
- The expanded garden organics service began on July 11, 2022, with an extra 45,000 households joining the service.
- Community feedback received in February 2021 from 7,500 residents regarding the future management of Sunshine Coast waste revealed overwhelming support for expanding the garden organics service to contribute to a better and more sustainable future.
- The garden organics bin is the first step towards implementing a future Food Organics and Garden Organics bin service.
- Mulching and reusing garden waste, instead of dumping it, will extend our landfill life and reduce greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere.
- It could also potentially save property owners paying the full cost of the Queensland Government Waste Levy.
More information on the expanded garden organics service is available at www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/gardenbin