GREEN bins will be introduced to all households across the city as the council grapples with tough targets on reducing landfill.
Despite the failings of the city’s trial with Food Organics Garden Organics waste collection and ongoing shortfalls in waste collection across the city, Ipswich City Council last week decided to go ahead with a bold plan to expand kerbside collection services to a three-bin system to include FOGO collection citywide.
Council voted unanimously in favour of expanding the waste collection service during the 2024-25 financial year.
The current opt-in FOGO green bin service would be replaced with a fortnightly collection citywide.
The move was in response to the State Government reducing the Waste Levy Rebate awarded to the Council from the next financial year.
The Waste Levy Rebate currently completely offsets the amount of Waste Levy the City pays to the State Government on municipal waste disposed to landfill.
A report to council’s Growth, Infrastructure and Waste Committee forecasted that the council would pay an additional $60 million in levy costs over the next decade if it continued to operate under the current system.
A waste audit conducted in January found that about 49 percent of material in red-top general rubbish bins was organic waste.
Council is aiming at diverting 55 percent of all waste materials handled away from landfill by 2025 to meet the State Government’s recycling and waste reduction targets. Those targets rise to 70 percent of waste diverted from landfill by 2030, 90 percent by 2040 and 95 percent by 2050.
About 30 percent of households in Ipswich use the current opt-in green bin at a cost of $80 a year for a fortnightly collection service.
The report to council advised that transition to a three-bin service would cost an estimated $10.2 million. The extra service would require six extra FOGO side-lift waste collection trucks, nine truck drivers, distribution of 68,000 new bins and 96,000 kitchen caddies.
During the 12-month trial of FOGO bins last year there was a 30 percent contamination rate.
The council was told the high contamination rate was experienced as a weekly service and when the collection dropped to a fortnightly service with a weekly general waste collection, the contamination rate dropped to about 5 percent.
More than 1,000 Ipswich households in Bellbird Park and Raceview took part in the trial, which led to 82 tonnes of waste being diverted away from landfill.
During the trial the Council was forced to revert back to weekly general bin collection and fortnightly organics bin collection after complaints from residents.
