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Aug 26, 2023

How a million bins will clear the scraps after you’ve cleaned up your plate

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Lime-green food and garden waste wheelie bins will be sent to 1 million south-east Queensland households by 2030. South-east Queensland

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.

Lime-green food and garden waste wheelie bins will be sent to 1 million south-east Queensland households by 2030.

South-east Queensland will introduce a third wheelie bin across all councils to reduce the problem of food waste going to landfill.Credit: iStock

State Development Minister Steven Miles announced $151 million would allow south-east Queensland councils to make the new wheelie bins, funded by Queensland’s $95-a-tonne waste levy.

By 2030 households will have three wheelie bins: the red one will be general waste, the yellow one will be paper, cardboard and plastics, and the green one will be for food scraps and organic waste.

Ratepayers won’t pay for the bin, but will pay for the collection.

Brisbane has reduced its green bin collection from $93 to $45 and the money from the levy keeps the price down.

Brisbane has 140,000 green waste bins and 2400 have been ordered since July after a $1 new green bin offer was made in the council budget.

But the city also has a fortnightly food waste green bin trial, involving 6000 households in 30 suburbs.

That is where the acronym FOGO – food organics, garden organics – comes in.

Up to 50 per cent of general kerbside waste collected is organic waste.

South-east Queensland councils will standardise their wheelie bins to red, yellow and green by 2030.Credit:

Organic waste is one of the biggest drivers of greenhouse gas emissions from landfill but can be converted into reusable products such as mulch or compost.

The idea is to standardise the colour of wheelie bin lids in all south-east Queensland councils to red, yellow and green so a future education campaign can be more effective.

Queensland is not meeting its 2030 waste recycling goals and Friday’s announcement will give money to the 12 south-east Queensland councils to pay for the bins.

“Every year 400,000 tonnes of organic waste that could be recovered and recycled is instead sent to landfill here in south-east Queensland,” Miles said.

In 2022, the state announced a 10-year food and organic waste policy which requires that 65 per cent of all organic waste be diverted from landfill and halve household waste.

The idea is to do it on a regional basis to have the biggest effect on recycling rates.

Food waste in landfill emits methane, a strong greenhouse gas. The Climate Council estimated food waste in Australian landfills emitted 6.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

“One of the great things about this is it sees money collected from the [$95 a tonne] waste levy going back into waste reduction initiatives,” Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner said.