Tweed Shire Council is introducing a ‘green bin’ service next week and the northern border marker has a received a green transformation to symbolise the change.
Houses and duplexes in the Tweed’s urban areas will moved to the three-bin system in an effort to reduce the amount of organic waste ending up in landfill.
As with Lismore and Byron councils, which already operate the system, the green-lid organics bin for food and garden waste will be collected weekly and turned into rich compost to improve soil quality across the region.
Rod Dawson, council’s acting director of community and natural resources, said green-lighting the border marker was ‘actually quite appropriate because we have been getting a lot of attention from people in Queensland who are interested in what we are doing.
‘Some people north of the border are green with envy with the initiative we’re taking,’ Mr Dawson quipped.
‘When organic material goes to landfill it presents significant environmental challenges that are expensive for our ratepayers to deal with and the best solution is to keep it from getting there in the first place,’ he said.
‘The three-bin system… is proven to take that organic material and turn it from a serious liability into a significant resource.’
The NSW Government has set a target for all councils to divert at least 70 per cent of household waste away from landfill by 2022. The three-bin system is expected to make the largest contribution of any reform towards that goal in the Tweed, from the current rate of about 42 per cent.
Under the previous system, about 30 tonnes of organic waste was being produced and sent to landfill every day in the Tweed.
‘The three-bin system relies on residents separating their food waste in their kitchens and this small change in behaviour will have significant benefits for the whole community,’ Mr Dawson said.
‘We can make this positive change for our future but it does depend on each of us individually doing their bit.
‘As with any major change, we are expecting some teething problems, just like when the yellow recycling bin was introduced, but we are confident everyone will settle in quickly,’ Mr Dawson said.
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