BELLINGEN Shire Council, Coffs Harbour City Council and Nambucca Valley Council have teamed up to deliver a regional campaign to help educate residents about sustainable ways to dispose of food scraps and garden waste.

The Let’s Get Composting campaign will run across the three Local Government Areas for the next year.

The Councils and MidWaste Regional Waste Forum secured funding from the NSW Environment Protection Authority to develop the campaign to encourage residents to put their food scraps and garden waste in the green bin or compost at home in an effort to keep this valuable resource out of landfill.

As part of the “Let’s Get Composting” Coffs Coast program, 10,000 kitchen caddies will be available for free for residents from 1 July 2021, making it easier to collect food scraps for disposal in the green wheelie bin.

A survey of Coffs Coast residents found most people know food scraps and garden waste should be disposed of in the green bin to be composted by Council, and around half are already doing the right thing.

However, an audit of kerbside wheelie bins across the region found up to 40 percent of the contents of red-lidded rubbish bins was food scraps and garden waste that should be placed in the green-lidded bins, indicating a significant opportunity to improve resource recovery rates in local communities.

Bellingen Shire Council Mayor, Councilor Dominic King, said, “Disposing of your food scraps and garden waste in the green wheelie bin or composting at home is one of the easiest things you can do to reduce your climate change footprint and contribute to the circular economy for our shires waste.

“International Compost Awareness Week” this week is helping to shine a light on the important role of composting in reducing organic materials in landfill and building healthier soils,” Mayor King said.

“We need to shift our thinking and see food scraps and garden waste as a valuable resource, instead of a waste product; to be transformed into nutrient-rich compost used to improve local gardens, parks and farms.

“The Let’s Get Composting” campaign reminds residents that all food scraps belong in the green bin, including things you don’t want to compost at home such as onions, garlic and citrus peels.

“The joint composting facility can even process meat, bones and soiled paper products like serviettes,” said Mayor King.

Residents are encouraged to collect a free kitchen caddy from one of many pick up locations across the three Local Government Areas, which are listed at www.letsgetcomposting.org.au.

The free caddies will be available from 1 July 2021 onwards and availability will be dependent on supply.

The program website also provides information about what can and cannot go in the green bin, a behind-the-scenes look at the Biomass Solutions composting process, tips for keeping your kitchen caddy and green wheelie bin free from pests and smells, and ways to avoid food waste in the first place.

This project is an initiative of Bellingen Shire Council and NSW Environment Protection Authority and is funded from the waste levy.