Future waste initiatives

Advanced Waste Technologies

Advanced waste technologies in waste management are new methods that help to recover more recyclable materials from waste, and use new technologies to utilise waste, such as creating energy, rather than sending it straight to landfill.

Yarra Ranges is part of a group of 16 councils from across Melbourne working to investigate options for dealing with waste in a smarter way into the future. 

For more information on Alternative Waste Technologies, see this video.

Food and Garden Organics

Food waste makes up over a third of the contents of the average Victorian household rubbish bin. Why is this such a big concern? When food waste is buried in a landfill (tip), it is broken down by microbes that can only survive in the absence of oxygen. While breaking down the food waste, these microbes create methane, a greenhouse gas that is a potent greenhouse gas, contributing to climate change. 

The Victorian Government has a target to halve the amount of food waste sent to landfill by 2030. To help achieve this, councils across the state are changing the way that they deal with food waste, using options such as large-scale composting.

The first area to trial a collection of combined Food and Green Organics collections (adding food to the green waste bin) was the North Eastern councils of Melbourne. From 2012, they trialled sending their collections to a special composting facility in Bulla, north-west of Melbourne.

After the success of the north-west trial, councils in Melbourne’s south-east entered a contract to send FOGO waste to a newly-constructed composting facility in Dandenong South. 

Yarra Ranges Council is currently working with other councils in the eastern region to determine a contract for our organic waste, to begin at the end of the current waste collection contract. Information on any changes to current collection arrangements will be communicated with all residents well in advance of any changes being made. 

Watch a video of the Bulla project.

Transforming Recycling in Victoria

Recycling will be changing across Victoria in the coming years. Find out more about how recycling is transforming.