Bin collections to change

The City is making these changes:

• To stop organic food and garden waste from going to landfill and generating greenhouse gas emissions. Some households are still putting food and garden waste in their general waste bin and it is hoped the change will encourage them to use the correct bins
• To encourage and educate households to correctly sort the waste they create
• To lessen the amount of general waste that will need to be transported to landfills outside of Greater Bendigo when the Eaglehawk Landfill closes in 2023
• To help minimise future cost increases associated with sending waste to landfill
• To achieve the aims of the Victorian Government’s circular economy policy and Recycling Victoria: A new economy plan and the actions of the City of Greater Bendigo’s Climate Change and Environment Strategy 2021-2026

Yes. Council formally voted to make the change at its meeting on Monday January 30, 2023.

The changes will not take effect until early 2024.

When the changes are introduced it will be a simple swap – you will put your general waste bin out fortnightly on the same week as you currently put out your organics bin, and your organics bin will go out weekly.

Residents will be kept informed of the changes in advance. 

Details and costs regarding getting an additional general waste bin or increasing the size of your general waste bin will be provided as part of the detailed implementation plan.

Options will be promoted via the City’s website, social media and local media once the plan is confirmed.

If you correctly sort your household recycling, organics and general waste in the correct bins this should not be a problem.

For alternative ways to dispose of unwanted household items, visit  Landfill and Transfer Stations

A trial study undertaken by Lake Macquarie City Council (Community Nappy Trial Report 2014), reviewed concerns around odour in relation to a fortnightly general waste bin collection.

The study found that when soiled nappies were placed in plastic bags or wrapped in newspaper, and the general waste bin was kept in the shade, odour was no more of an issue two weeks after disposal in the bin than it was after one week.  

*Note - Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census data states that 5 per cent or 2,134 residents of Greater Bendigo’s population is aged 0-4 years old.

If you place all organic food and garden waste in your organics bin and you wrap products in your waste bin that may smell (e.g. nappies), your waste bin should not smell.

There will be no changes for the 5,495 rural properties that do not receive an organics collection and your waste collections will continue weekly as usual. However, this is expected to be reviewed in the next 12 months.

The changes will only apply to the 45,519 households within the current organics collection service area. 

Yes, your general waste bin will be collected fortnightly.

The service review completed in 2022 noted there was a small percentage of recyclable materials going into general waste bins, however the majority of incorrect material was organic material.

Rotting food in landfill is the largest contributor to methane in the air, which ultimately contributes to climate change.

Correctly disposing of our organics reduces greenhouse gas emissions considerably.

In 2023, the Victorian Government is also introducing a Container Deposit Scheme, which should remove a large amount of glass and plastics from the recycling and general waste system as well.

Yes, you can upsize to a 360-litre recycle bin for no additional charge.

You can save space in your recycling bin by flattening items before you place them in the bin.

These items can go in either your recycling bin or your organics bin:

• Plain, non-waxy cardboard
• Tissue boxes (plastic window removed)
• Toilet rolls
• Newspaper/plain paper

And you can drop off additional recyclables, including soft plastics, for free at the Heathcote, Strathfieldsaye and Goornong transfer stations and Eaglehawk Recycle Shop.  

The City will soon install 20 glass disposal points across Greater Bendigo and release a public tender to find a company that will be able to turn the glass into material to be used in road base, concrete and other City construction projects.

Information regarding when residents will need to start separating glass from their recycling and where the 20 glass disposal points will be, will be promoted via the City’s website, social media and local media when confirmed.

Yes. The City has 140-litre and 240-litre green organics bins available, and there is no cost difference between the sizes.

You can easily arrange a smaller or larger organics bin online or by phoning the City on 1300 002 642.

At this point in time there is no recommendation to implement hard waste collections or tip vouchers.

You can phone the Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA’s) pollution hotline on 1300 372 842.

You can also phone the City on 1300 002 642, which will remove dumped rubbish on Council-owned/managed land.

The City’s waste service is cost neutral. No profit is made by the City. 

There will be no change to the waste charge on your rates notice, as the level of service delivery is the same, it is a direct swap – one bin will still be collected weekly (organics), the other bin will still be collected fortnightly (general waste).

The City is charged by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to dispose of waste in landfill. That means every time one of our waste trucks enters Eaglehawk Landfill, the City pays a fee to the EPA.

Each year the City pays between $5M and $7M in EPA levy fees.

This cost is shared amongst ratepayers via the waste charge on your rates notice and helps to cover the cost of throwing out our waste. 

By sorting waste properly and reducing the number of general waste collections, the aim is to save money for the City and ratepayers. 

The 2022 review of household bin collections looked at a number of things, including:

• If the frequency of collections met community expectations
• If the frequency of collections aligned with Victorian Government and City of Greater Bendigo policies, plans and objectives
• The environmental benefits of changing the frequency of bin collections
• How to encourage people to stop putting organic food and garden material in their general waste bin

As part of the service review, in 2021 the City surveyed residents on a number of waste and resource recovery services and received 2,800 responses, which provided a high-level snapshot of community thoughts. 

While 54 per cent of respondents said they did not want a change to their existing service, the survey also revealed:

• 66 per cent of customers with a 140-litre general waste bin are not filling it every week
• 63 per cent of customers with a 240-litre general waste bin are not filling it every week
• 31 per cent of customers with a 240-litre general waste bin say their bin is filled 50 per cent or less each week
• A total of 34 per cent of customers across both bin sizes say they fill their general waste bin weekly

Yes. A number of councils that have switched to weekly FOGO and fortnightly general waste collections have seen dramatic reductions in diverting organics from landfill and seen large increases in recycling rates. For example:

Macedon Ranges Shire Council: the amount of general waste collected since the introduction of a weekly FOGO service in February 2020 has reduced by 32 per cent. The monthly landfill diversion rate before the introduction of the weekly FOGO collection was 39 per cent and this rose to 74 per cent by October 2021.

City of Banyule: the organics diversion has increased by 42 per cent since switching to a weekly FOGO collection in July 2022.

Glen Eira City Council: the organics diversion has increased by 45 per cent since switching to a weekly FOGO collection in July 2022.

Surf Coast Shire Council: the organics diversion has increased 46 per cent since switching to a weekly FOGO collection, as well as a 32 per cent decrease in waste to landfill since 2020.

Bass Coast Shire Council: went straight to a weekly FOGO collection in September 2017 and has reported that waste-to-landfill has been consistently below 30 per cent since this introduction.

The following waste should be placed in your general waste bin:

• Clothing and shoes (not suitable for donation)
• Small household polystyrene or foam trays
• Household general waste
• Broken glass, mirrors or ceramics
• Light bulbs
• Nappies
• Soft plastics

Do not put the following in your general waste bin:

• Recyclables
• Garden clippings 
• E-Waste
• Bulk packaging polystyrene
• Syringes
• Gas bottles
• Paints or solvents
• Bricks, rubble, timber or tiles
• Pesticides, oils or chemicals

• All food products – bones, fruit peels/skin, eggshells, meat, fish
• Garden clippings
• Hair/pet hair
• Vacuum dust
• Tissues
• Cardboard
• Tea bags (including staple and string)
• Pizza boxes
• Fish and chip paper (not the waxy paper)
• Cardboard take-away food packaging

There are lots of items you can dispose of at the City’s transfer stations in Strathfieldsaye, Heathcote and Goornong and the Eaglehawk Recycle Shop, with many accepted free of charge.

Farm chemical containers (Drum Muster - bookings essential)

• Eaglehawk Eco Centre
• Goornong Transfer Station
• Heathcote Transfer Station

Household paint (Paint Back)

• Eaglehawk Eco Centre
• Heathcote Transfer Station
• Strathfieldsaye Transfer Station

E-waste (anything with a plug, battery or power cord)

• Eaglehawk Recycle Shop
• Goornong Transfer Station
• Heathcote Transfer Station
• Strathfieldsaye Transfer Station

Hard waste (whitegoods, furniture, metals, wood, car parts, tools)

• Eaglehawk Recycle Shop
• Goornong Transfer Station
• Heathcote Transfer Station
• Strathfieldsaye Transfer Station
• A range of private contractors may be able to assist
• Visit https://www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/wastedisposal

Sport equipment (excluding clothing, shoes)

• Strathfieldsaye Transfer station

Food and organics waste

• Green organics bin at home

Domestic green garden waste (free disposal)

• Eaglehawk Landfill
• Heathcote Transfer Station

Recycling (hard plastic tubs, plastic beauty bottles, plastic cleaning bottles (incl. spray bottles), cardboard/paper/magazines, aluminium, glass jars, bottles, lids, tin cans, aerosol cans).

• Yellow/blue lidded recycle bin at home

Soft plastics (chip/biscuit packets, cling film, frozen food pages, packaging e.g. toilet paper, dry pet food bags, green bags)

• Eaglehawk Recycle Shop
• Goornong Transfer Station
• Heathcote Transfer Station
• Strathfieldsaye Transfer Station

Textiles (all clothing, including shoes, sheets, towels, soft furnishing e.g. cushions and pillows, rugs (not carpet), wetsuits) – coming soon in February 2023

• Eaglehawk Recycle Shop (TBC)
• Goornong Transfer Station
• Heathcote Transfer Station
• Strathfieldsaye Transfer Station
• Not accepted – backpacks, swimwear, underwear, waterproof mattress protectors, curtains with hooks and eyelets, carpet, reusable shopping bags (polypropylene and plastic ‘canvas’ bags)