By Tate Papworth
Backyard composting could soon be the norm in Brimbank. The council is hoping to encourage households to manage their food and garden organic waste at home.
Cr Kim Thien Truong moved a motion at last month’s council meeting requesting a number of options for Brimbank households to recycle their food and organic waste be investigated.
“The management of organic food and garden waste is an important topic and a step in the right direction for the environment,” Cr Truong said. “Around half of our household garbage is made up of food and garden waste. Council currently collects garden organic waste from around half of all households.
“We know that reducing levels of waste from our kitchens and gardens can contribute to reducing overall waste going to landfill.”
She said the benefits from introducing a backyard composting or similar system would be numerous.
“Rather than putting this type of waste in the bin, a household organic processing system creates a useful product for the garden that helps to retain water and nutrients to build resilience to drought,” she said.
“The organics in landfill break down in a way that can create greenhouse gasses, including methane, which affect air quality and contribute to climate change.
“A program like this would [also] help encourage a love of gardening in the community, which is a healthy and popular activity, especially for senior residents.
“It’s important that we support and educate the community to get involved in ways that help the environment.”
The council will introduce a kerbside food and garden organic collection service as part of its new waste, recycling and litter strategy to be rolled out across the municipality.
However mayor Lucinda Congreve said a composting program would have longer lasting benefits.
“Supporting backyard composting can complement a future kerbside collection of food and garden organics, by reducing the quantity of material that must be collected, transported and processed,” Cr Congreve said.
