Ratepayers favour green waste option

By Paul Dunlop
A MAJORITY of residents in Cardinia Shire would support council’s new green waste service, a survey has found.
Council commissioned the random poll of ratepayers in August last year.
It showed 60 per cent of respondents across the shire and up to 71 per cent of people in residential areas supported the introduction of the new green waste service.
As reported in last week’s Gazette, council plans to introduce a fortnightly green waste service in Pakenham and other townships around the shire.
The service will not be compulsory, with residents able to choose not to be included in the kerbside service that will enable lawn clippings and other material to be left for council to take away.
It is yet to be decided how much the service will cost. It will be supplied at a fixed cost to users, possibly around $60, on top of the garbage charge currently set at $157 per year.
Councillors were enthusiastic about the service when they adopted it as part of a new waste management strategy at last Monday’s council meeting.
Cardinia mayor Bill Ronald said the new system would save ratepayers money in the long term.
“The cost of landfill space is increasing rapidly, and it costs significantly more to send green waste to landfill than to recycle it,” Cr Ronald said.
“On top of that there is the environmental cost of wasting such a valuable resource. Recycling and reusing our green waste is the only responsible option.”
Council is also looking at ways to improve and streamline the hard waste and bundled green waste collection system shirewide in coming months in an effort to clean up streets and reduce the amount of recyclable material going to landfill.
These changes are part of council’s response to the State Government’s Towards Zero Waste strategy, which has set targets for councils to reduce the amount of recyclable waste going to land fill.
The goal is to have 45 per cent of kerbside material recycled by 200809. Currently only about 30 per cent of Cardinia’s kerbside material is recycled.
The draft of the Waste Management Strategy was released to the public for comment in July last year.
Council received 23 submissions, the majority of which called for a comprehensive regular green waste collection to replace the current by appointmentonly service.
The tender process for green waste collection and reprocessing contractors is expected to begin soon.