Five years in the making – changes ahead for recycling organic waste in Victoria’s south east

Earlier this year, after a very competitive tendering process, the eight councils signed off final contracts with Veolia Environmental Services, Cleanaway and Sacyr Environment Australia following an earlier competitive tendering process.

Council’s Waste Management Services Coordinator Misty Johannsen said this was a significant milestone for Council, after five years of collaboration on the project.

“It’s been some time in the making but these new agreements will go a long way in addressing a gap in facilities in the region, and allow Council to investigate the viability of food waste kerbside collection services in the future,” Ms Johannsen said.

“Organic waste from homes and businesses makes up around 42 per cent of waste going to landfill. This contract will enable Council to divert even more household organic waste away from landfill turning it into useful products for improving soil, growing healthy gardens, and supporting food production.”

Together the three companies under the new contract for the South East Tender Catchment will process organic waste collected in the area until 2032. It is one of two contracts for metropolitan Melbourne that will complete a network of organics processing capable of diverting over half a million tonnes of food and garden waste away from landfills by 2019.

The Back to Earth initiative supports these new organics processing facilities by raising community understanding of council kerbside organic recycling.

For more information about metropolitan Melbourne’s organics processing network, visit the Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group website