Merri-bek households will move to a 4-bin system as required by State Government reforms from mid-2023, with the addition of a glass bin to their existing garbage and recycling bins. A food and garden organics (FOGO) bin, currently an opt-in service, will be rolled out to all households.
The changes follow Merri-bek City Council’s endorsement of a new Kerbside Waste Service and Charge Policy at the December Council Meeting.
To help residents move to the new waste model, garbage bins will continue to be collected weekly while recycling bins will move to fortnightly collection and be increased in size. FOGO bins will be collected weekly and glass bins will be collected monthly.
Merri-bek Mayor Councillor Mark Riley said that while fortnightly garbage collection was a better option in terms of costs and emissions reduction, we recognised that a phased approach to the changes would help the community.
“We know that having fortnightly garbage will be better for our hip pockets, and for the environment, so we’re going to work hard to set ourselves up to take this final step in the future. That will be subject to a future Council decision.
“But right now, we understand that this is a big change for Moreland residents, so we will make changes in stages and we will provide ongoing support to make the transition as smooth as possible.”
The new 4-bin service will help divert waste from landfill and improve the quality of recyclables in Merri-bek, taking Moreland a step closer to Council’s goals of zero carbon and zero waste. The endorsed changes will also ensure that Merri-bek meets the State Government requirements to transition to a 4-bin service for households by 2030.
Cr Riley explained that the extensive three-stage community consultation process had demonstrated the diversity and differing needs of the community.
“We know through the consultation process that no ‘one size will fit all’ and varying household needs have been carefully considered in the creation of this policy,” he said.
“We’ve included flexibility for diverse household needs, such as families with kids in nappies and large families, by offering a range of additional service choices.”
We will commence a trial of fortnightly garbage collection in one section of the north or Merri-bek and one section of the south. The trial will help inform us how best to move to fortnightly garbage collections across the municipality.
Hard waste will also undergo some changes, with a hybrid model of one booked and one municipal-wide hard waste collection will be trialled for two years. Changes to hard waste collection will be first up in the phased approach and are scheduled for 2022.
Further changes to garbage collection frequency and hard waste collections are subject to further Council decision.
