The draft 2020/2021 Budget will fund the extension of the fortnightly kerbside organics collection service to the small townships of Axedale, Heathcote, Elmore and Goornong in late 2020.

Currently households outside of the organics collection boundary are not eligible for a collection and audits indicate that approximately 45 per cent of the waste generated in these areas is organic material. 

The commercial organics service will also be extended to allow all food businesses to access an organics collection, to increase diversion of organic material from landfill.

There are currently 55 businesses that are part of the commercial organics service trial. There are more than 1,000 food businesses within Greater Bendigo that create a significant amount of food waste that will soon be able to access the service.

Mayor Cr Margaret O’Rourke said the organics collection service was extremely successful.

“We’re pleased to now be able to extend this service to our rural residents and to businesses, to further reduce the amount of organic waste going to landfill,” Cr O’Rourke said.

“We estimate that our kerbside organics collection service diverts 12,000 tonnes from landfill every year.

“We’re committed to continually finding more ways to divert items from landfill, educate our community about how to correctly dispose of waste and lower costs to ratepayers.”

To view the draft Budget, go to www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/budget