Organic Waste BinMost councils provide some form of organic, putrescible, waste recycling, if yours does not then perhaps you should be on the phone to them. Immediately.

These days Councils usually supply a green waste bin in which food scraps, garden organics and even animal faeces can be put. The contents of these bins are taken to a commercial composting site and processed into compost products for use in home gardens, public open spaces such as sporting fields and park garden beds.

This organic resource recovery is achieved through various methods from In-vessel Composting to Open-air or Windrow/Forced aeration composting systems. In-vessel Composting facilities produce and capture gases from homogenised organic material. These gases are then used to generate the green electricity that powers the facility.

My ‘extracurricular’ activities with Doctasaurus at his studios near Penrith has allowed me to take note of Penrith City Council’s organic waste service. They provide each household, on their 3-Bin service, with a Kitchen Organics Tidy Bin to store food waste before its removal from the kitchen to the green lid organics bin.

Kitchen organics bin

All of these residents receive a delivery of a pack of 80 compostable bags every three months. Ordinary plastic bag liners or any other bags labelled as compostable or biodegradable are not acceptable as they may not break down quickly enough for composting process used. These bags could also be used for pet poop and as Doctasaurus says: “Pick Your Pet Poop Up

If additional kitchen tidy bins are needed, they can be purchased from the Customer Service Counters at Penrith or St Marys Council Offices for $11.00 including GST. Apparently you do not need to show a rates notice or proof of address so if you live nearby and would like one, then go see them.

Penrith City Council also advise residents to line the base of the green lid organics bin with newspaper as lining the bins assists with the emptying of them thus keeping scraps from getting stuck to the base of the bins.

The Kitchen Organics Tidy Bin is a service all councils should implement so if you have a desire for a better organics disposal service in your area get onto your local council and introduce them to the idea and then keep at them until it is up and running.

Comments

  1. Jim Dandy said:
    20 October 1:24 pm

    This is an amazing concept and should be available through all councils. Especially being that you can use the bags for Pet Poop and drop it in a compost bin or even general landfill and know that is is just going to decompose.

    Good luck with getting this scheme noticed by other councils and I look forward to seeing Doctasaurus take off, there are some great songs on there.

  2. Alison Maltby said:
    23 October 6:55 pm

    I live in Wollongong and I would love to see our council take this idea on. Perhaps you could put a proposal together and submit to the local Greens Member. I for one would support any petition calling for this to be implemented.