Putting your food scraps in the green bin keeps it out of landfill, but where does it go?
Our food scraps and garden material are turned into a valuable resource for our regions’ farmers and for our gardens high quality compost! Before this can happen, there are a few things you might not know that happen along the way!
Step 1
Putting Food Scraps in the bin
This is where we need everyone to get on board – make the extra effort to add all your food scraps and garden material to your green lidded organics bin and keep all other waste products out to make the best compost with no contamination.
Step 2
Our fantastic drivers do a great job collecting our green lidded organics bins and can spot waste products that shouldn’t be in the compost, they do a great job in keeping the compost clean. This is one of the reasons we can only accept the council approved lime green compostable liners.
Step 3
I sort it
At different times of year there are very different mixes of food and garden material that we residents put in our green lidded organics bins, so the processors are always keeping an eye on their ‘mix’ before processing to make sure the ratio of material is ideal for the material to breakdown into compost.
Step 4
While the cameras are good there is nothing like the eagle eyes of the sorting team to pull out any material that shouldn’t be heading to the composting pile! This can include: plastic/biodegradable bags, pillows, dog bedding, food packaging and general waste.
Step 5
I check it
Step 6
I compost it
The composting process takes a number of weeks to turn food scraps and garden material into the compost we see at a garden centre.
Step 7
Once the material from your green-lidded organics bin has been turned into compost and tested, it’s ready for farmers and gardeners to use throughout our region!
Step 8
Compost can assist farmers with improvements in their soil structure, which in turn results in better quality crops, veggies and fruits. Your food waste literally helps feed your family!
Step 9
I then make dough with it
Step 10
I buy it
Something to think about when you tuck into your next sandwich – you might have helped grow the grain!
Step 11
I eat it
Step 12
and I bin it
It is that simple, make the effort to separate your food scraps and garden material from other waste products and place into your green lidded organics bin. You are making a difference.
Where Can I Get Some Compost?
Residents can access the compost from local garden centres such as Peards and Barnies Rubble in Albury.
Schools and community groups can apply to have compost delivered by Carbon Mate’s Community Compost Grants Program. LEARN MORE
A-Z of What Goes in Your Green Bin
A – J
- Animal waste 1
- Baked goods
- Bones
- Branches
- Breads, cakes and pastries
- Cereal slops
- Cereals and grains
- Coffee grounds and filter paper
- Cooking oil and fats (absorb in paper towel or newspaper)
- Cotton balls
- Dairy foods
- Dryer lint
- Eggshells
- Facial tissues
- Feathers
- Fish and chip paper
- Flowers
- Food scraps
- Fruit fly infested fruit (tie up in compostable liner)
- Fruits
- General garden clippings
- Grains
- Grass clippings
- Human and animal hair
- Jelly
K-P
- Kitchen paper towel
- Kitty litter, compostable eg. clay, paper etc
- Lawn clippings
- Leaves
- Leftovers
- Lollies
- Meat (raw, cooked)
- Meat scraps
- Napkins, paper
- Newspaper
- Nuts & seeds
- Paper bags
- Paper containers and takeaway boxes
- Paper napkins
- Paper plates
- Paper towel rolls
- Paper towel
- Pasta
- Pizza boxes
- Popsicle sticks
- Post it notes
- Poultry
- Printed serviettes
- Prunings and cuttings
Q-Z
- Salad and dressing
- Seafood (including bones and shells)
- Shredded paper
- Small branches
- Soiled cardboard/paper
- Spoiled food
- Sticks
- Straw and hay
- Take away foods
- Tea bags/leaves
- Thorny branches
- Tissues
- Toilet rolls
- Tree roots
- Vegetables
- Weeds
- Wet paper/cardboard
- Wooden toothpicks
- Wooden uncoated chopsticks/skewers
How to Use Your Kitchen Caddy and Liners
The Kitchen Caddy
Kitchen Caddies (bench top ‘mini-bins’) are available to all households. These are a clean and easy way to collect your food scraps, coffee grinds, tea bags, paper towel and tissues, this is your daily organic material which is in your home. The Kitchen caddies come with an annual supply of Council approved Halve Waste compostable liners that can be tied up when full and placed directly into the green-lidded organics bin.
Compostable Liners
All residents in Albury, Federation, Wodonga and Indigo Shire Councils are provided with a year’s supply of Council approved green compostable liners annually. Please remember that the compostable liners supplied by your local Council are the only liners that can be used. Sadly, biodegradable, degradable or normal plastic bags or bin liners DO NOT DECOMPOSE and can actually contaminate the contents of the green-lidded organics bin.
These liners have a shelf life of approximately 12 months so if your roll starts breaking or disintegrating, please start your new roll.
Compostable Packaging
An array of compostable packaging is now hitting the market such as compostable cups, mail bags and cooler pouches. These compostable items are not accepted in the green-lidded bin as they do not meet the strict requirements for our organics collection service. These items actually contaminate the contents, so please leave them out.
Run Out of Compostable Liners?
If you run out of liners, you can line your Kitchen Caddy with paper towel, newspapers or empty organic materials straight into your green-lidded organics bins. Small rolls (25 liners) are also available, free of charge, from your local Council.
Remember you do receive an annual supply of liners every year, these are dropped at your household every March-April.
