City dumps ‘zero target’

By John Van Klaveren
GEELONG’S council has abandoned its zero-waste target.
Councillors voted this week to shelve the target as part of a wide-ranging review of council’s waste management strategy.
A council report said its target of a 65 per cent reduction in waste to landfill by 2014 would have to be revised.
The reduction would have put council on track to reaching its target of zero waste to landfill.
“The (65 per cent) target may still be achievable by improvement and expansion of existing services,” the report said.
“It cannot be guaranteed without processing the food element of mixed waste and therefore it is more than likely that this target will have to be revised.
“At least it could be said though that (council) had a real go at achieving the current target.”
The report said no “silver bullet” was available for processing all organic waste.
“Operational solutions to the processing of mixed waste in particular are at least five years away.”
The report recommended consolidating existing waste services while awaiting further technological advances.
City Hall should maximise environmental and financial benefits from its existing recyclables collection and processing service, the report said.
“The City has struggled to establish a sustainable means of processing green organics collected from residential properties.”
The report community support for organic waste collection led to “higher than expected quantities collected”.
“The City’s green organics has the potential to be of significant value given that the collected material is high quality with a contamination rate of less than one per cent.”
Recent collection bin audits indicated about 20 per cent of Geelong’s red mixed waste bins was recyclable material.