Switching food scraps from rubbish bin to green bin
We will be introducing a new food and garden bin service mid-2023. This will mean you can add food scraps to your green bin.
At the same time we’ll change how often we pick up your bins. From July 2023, the food and garden bin, with most of the stinky stuff, will be picked up weekly and the general rubbish bin will be picked up fortnightly.
Your recycling bin will continue to be picked up fortnightly.
We understand this will be a big change for our community however, the changes won’t come into effect until mid-next year so we have time to plan for the change and help everyone understand it.
There are a number of reasons why we are introducing this new service. Please visit our online community engagement, come along to a pop-up consultation or join a focus group to share your feedback.
Helping the environment
Currently 43% of Knox’s rubbish that goes to landfill is food. When food scraps break down in landfill it creates harmful greenhouse gases which contributes to climate change.
Switching food scraps from the household rubbish bin to the green bin will mean that it can be composted and then used to enrich the soil at farms, parks and gardens rather than added into landfill.
Home composting can make a big difference not only to the volume in your rubbish bin but also on the environment. It also provides great organic material for your garden. However, not everyone has the capacity to compost at home, and not all food waste can be composted.
The new food and garden bin service will allow you to add the following things to your green bin:
- Fruit and vegetable scraps
- Bread, pasta, cereal and rice
- Seafood and meat (including bones)
- Dairy leftovers
- Eggshells
- Leftover food (cooked and raw)
- Human and animal hair
- Coffee grounds
- Lime green compostable bags - only AS 4736 with seedling symbol (this does not include dog poo bags)
- Small sticks, toothpicks, skewers, and uncoated chopsticks
- Used paper, paper towel, napkins, paper bags, newspaper, and tissues
- Weeds, flowers, grass, leaves, garden prunings, clean timber, and branches (under 100mm in diameter)
There are things that can’t go into the food and garden bin:
- Biodegradable bags, food packaging including cling wrap
- Pet and animal poo and litter
- Seafood shells (e.g. oyster)
- Liquids, fats, greases, and oils
- Nappies, personal hygiene products, baby wipes, makeup wipes
- Plastic, glass, metal (bottle caps, wire, etc), rocks, bricks, foil, polystyrene or cellophane
- Furniture, textiles and fabric
- Backyard and garage items, plastic pots, garden hoses, sporting equipment, gardening tools, batteries and oil containers
- Treated and painted timber, treated lattice and building materials
As part of the new service implementation we will be providing:
- a kitchen caddy
- a roll of compostable lime green liners which should last for a full year
- an information kit with helpful hints on how to use the service
- a new green bin (if you don’t currently have one)
For households with additional rubbish needs due to having 6 or more people, babies and children with nappies, people with high medical needs or requiring incontinence pads, we would like to hear from you about your concerns so that we can understand and plan how best to support you. Please visit our online community engagement, come along to a pop-up consultation or join a focus group to share your feedback.
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