As the trial used such a novel approach, the residents and the businesses involved, including council consulted extensively with the participating restaurants and other food outlets, with 85% of community, also maintaining a visible presence survey respondents in favour of the trial system and high level of communication during the trial and an additional 5% finding there was little period. Council collaborated with a key local difference to the existing system. community group to ensure the roll-out process the completion of the and dry’ collection ‘wet was successful, provided trial updates at the trial, Shoalhaven City Council has so far not community group’s monthly meetings and proceeded with full implementation of a kerbside published news and educational articles in the collection service for food and garden organics. local newsletter. In addition, the council set up a This was largely due to the reluctance of private local shop-front in the local community hall which sector MRF operators to commit to operating the initially ran three times per week and later twice council’s recycling facilities given the perceived per week. Council staff provided this forum to risks associated with the novel collection system distribute additional supplies of compostable for dry waste. bags, explain the process and address any questions or concerns. Council staff also Lessons Learnt: The trial demonstrated undertook home visits to assist elderly residents the potential for additional resource recovery and trouble-shoot difficult problems. using existing collection infrastructure. In essence, the trial design completely removed the Concerns pests and odour from the organics ‘garbage’ bin, leaving two types of recycling bin in its place, bins were addressed on a case-by-case basis and a system that was intended to simultaneously in general were resolved through behavioural incorporate low-technology resource recovery changes such as freezing seafood scraps until solutions and facilitate sustainable behaviour collection day and layering organics with change by both residents and businesses. newspaper and cardboard in the bin. Overall the system was extremely well accepted by both local
As the trial used such a novel approach, the council consulted extensively with the participating community, also maintaining a visible presence and high level of communication during the trial period. Council collaborated with a key local community group to ensure the roll-out process was successful, provided trial updates at the community group’s monthly meetings and published news and educational articles in the local newsletter. In addition, the council set up a local shop-front in the local community hall which initially ran three times per week and later twice per week. Council staff provided this forum to distribute additional supplies of compostable bags, explain the process and address any questions or concerns. Council staff also undertook home visits to assist elderly residents and trouble-shoot difficult problems. Concerns pests and odour from the organics bins were addressed on a case-by-case basis and in general were resolved through behavioural changes such as freezing seafood scraps until collection day and layering organics with newspaper and cardboard in the bin. Overall the system was extremely well accepted by both local residents and the businesses involved, including restaurants and other food outlets, with 85% of survey respondents in favour of the trial system and an additional 5% finding there was little difference to the existing system. the completion of the ‘wet and dry’ collection trial, Shoalhaven City Council has so far not proceeded with full implementation of a kerbside collection service for food and garden organics. This was largely due to the reluctance of private sector MRF operators to commit to operating the council’s recycling facilities given the perceived risks associated with the novel collection system for dry waste. Lessons Learnt: The trial demonstrated the potential for additional resource recovery using existing collection infrastructure. In essence, the trial design completely removed the ‘garbage’ bin, leaving two types of recycling bin in its place, a system that was intended to simultaneously incorporate low-technology resource recovery solutions and facilitate sustainable behaviour change by both residents and businesses.
collection-manual.docx