Narromine Shire Council believe food and garden waste service off to a good start

Narromine is one of three councils in Central West NSW who introduced organics recycling this year as part of a regional collaboration to turn organic waste into compost, instead of landfill.

Dubbo Regional, Mid-Western Regional and Narromine Shire Councils all introduced the Food and Garden Waste bin in July with some 24,000 residents now recycling their organic waste with the service.

More than 1400 tonnes of organic waste has been collected since the service was introduced four months ago. The Councils have been delighted by community uptake of the new bin, and particularly pleased with low contamination rates of the waste service.

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Recent reports to council show that contamination in the organics bin has been low since the service started, with only 2.3 percent recorded in its first month of operation. Three months into the service and this figure has dropped to approximately 1 percent.

Waste Processor for the three councils, JR Richards and Sons, said they aren’t stopping there.

“Within 12 months we expect to achieve around 0.5% contamination coming into the processing plant,” Chief Operating Officer for JR Richards, Greg Turner said.

Once received by the Dubbo Regional Organics Processing Plant, organic waste is hand-sorted to remove any plastic contamination. The waste is then shredded, composted, matured and tested to meet Australian Standards. The final product is screened and wind sifted to complete the process.

Narromine Shire Council’s General Manager, Jane Redden encourages residents to keep up the high standards.

“Keeping plastics out of the organics bin is important explained Jane “particularly food packaging or other caddy liners,” Ms Redden said.

“Never use other liners, even if they say ‘degradable’ or ‘biodegradable’, these products still contain plastic and won’t break down in the composting process” she explained.

As part of the waste service, the three councils supplied a kitchen caddy and compostable liners to help residents dispose of their food waste more easily. The council-provided liners are made from cornstarch, are certified compostable and are provided free of charge to residents.

Compost will be available in early 2019.