Rubbish audit’s bin worth it

A MASS education campaign has helped improve residents’ use of their recycling and green waste bins.

The improvement has helped the Geelong council in its attempt to avoid financial penalties running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An audit program of 7800 recycling or green waste bins began in March, targeting areas in Belmont, Bell Post Hill, Corio and Newcomb.

Cameras were fixed to the council’s collection trucks, making it possible to identify when items were incorrectly placed in bins. At those homes, stickers were placed on the bins to inform residents of what could and couldn’t be placed in them.

Four months on from the original inspections, the bins were inspected again — and the results were impressive.

All suburbs showed strong improvement, with just 1-3 per cent of bins containing contaminated items this month.

Acting city services director Peter Godfrey said plastic bags were the most common item incorrectly placed among recycling and green waste.

“The bin audits have really helped us push the message that they don’t belong there,” Mr Godfrey said.

“In Corio, the percentage of recycling bins inspected with items that shouldn’t be there went from 18 per cent to just 3 per cent. This is an amazing result.”

The council revealed last year that contamination of recycling and green waste was costing ratepayers about $700,000 annually. Almost 10 per cent of green bins were being tainted by items such as plastic bags and garden pots.

If the rate passed 10 per cent, the council would have lost up to $350,000 in revenue from its recycling contractor.