More than 40,000 households in Adelaide’s southern suburbs will get free access to a ventilated food waste container to help improve waste management under an $800,000 partnership between the Marshall Liberal Government and City of Marion.
This is one of the biggest rollouts of kitchen caddies in the South Australia’s history and will help reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill with a caddy and 150 compostable bin liners to be delivered to Marion residents’ doors over the next four weeks.
The partnership is one of the projects funded as part of the Marshall Liberal Government’s $10 million Waste and Resource Recovery Modernisation and Council Transition Package.
Acting Minister for Environment and Water Stephen Patterson said the grant funding is available to assist local councils to modernise their operations.
“Through waste management modernisation South Australian councils can reduce costs, improve services, increase customer satisfaction and create jobs,” Acting Minister Patterson said.
“The Marshall Liberal Government is proud to support this initiative of the Marion Council which will see kitchen caddies delivered to more than 40,000 households in the southern suburbs.
“We know that up to 40 per cent of the household waste that ends up in landfill is organics which could be redirected through the green bin.
“With many South Australians spending more time at home in response to COVID-19 restrictions we have seen a spike in the amount of waste being produced
“By providing kitchen caddies and compostable bags this will encourage more people to correctly dispose of their organic waste.”
City of Marion Mayor Kris Hanna said food scraps comprised 35 per cent of the waste in Council’s general waste bins.
“The caddies will help the Marion community play their part in reducing the huge volume of food scraps going to landfill,” Mayor Hanna said.
“Each household disposes of about 2.5kg of food scraps each week in their waste bin – or more than 100 tonnes across the Marion Council area. We’re hoping that the delivery of 42,000 caddies to our residents will help divert at least 1800 tonnes of food scraps from landfill each year.
“The project is expected to save Council about $200,000 per year in landfill disposal costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Minister Patterson said reducing waste sent to landfill is not only good for the environment but good for the economy as well.
“Reducing food waste at home is one of the simplest things South Australians can do to fight climate change, help the environment and create economic growth through a boost to the compost industry,” Minister Patterson said.
“We know that there are three times as many jobs created for every tonne of waste recycled or reused instead of going to landfill.
“Marion will become the eighth council to provide an area-wide distribution of ventilated caddies lined with certified compostable bags. Funding such as this will help councils improve their food waste collection and reduce their waste management costs.”
“Councils receive a subsidy for the cost of bench-top containers, compostable bags and production of householder education material under the popular Which Bin? brand.
“I’m thrilled to see the City of Marion taking the initiative to introduce a best-practice, area-wide system to their residents with funding of up to $805,000 which will see 42,000 householders receive a ventilated food waste container, locally made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic.”
Head to https://www.greenindustries.sa.gov.au/funding or www.WhichBin.sa.gov.au for more information.
