Food Waste Recycling Process Trial
The City of Canada Bay Council is currently undertaking a food waste recycling and processing trial involving approximately 1000 residential premises including 147 units.
This trial is an important environmental initiative as food waste sent to landfill will never be recovered for reuse. When food waste decomposes in landfill it generates green house gases and environmentally harmful liquids. An important part of this trial will involve Council testing ways to reprocess food waste into valuable compost and green electricity.
The food waste recycling trial began in June, and will run for twelve weeks until September 2007. There are four individual trial areas each with a different methodology and a control area for results of the trial areas to be measured against.
Each premises has been supplied a small kitchen bench top bin into which residents are to place all their raw and cooked food waste including meat and bones. Residents are then being asked to empty their kitchen bench top bin into their garden organics bin along with their normal garden organics. Unit residents have also been supplied a food waste only bin (which is stored in their common bin room along with their garbage and recycling bins) into which they will empty their kitchen bench top bin. Council’s waste collection contractor will then collect garden organics and food waste only bins from trial areas separately to the rest of the city and deliver it to processors for reprocessing into compost and green electricity.
What can I put into my Kitchen Bench Top Bin?
- See Photo 1 - fruit and vegetable scraps
- See Photo 2 - meat, chicken fish scraps & bones
- See Photo 3 - dairy products (yoghurt & cheese) & egg shells
- See Photo 4 - coffee grinds, tea bags, paper towels, serviettes, tissues & hair (including pet hair)
- See Photo 5 - bread, rice, pasta and cereal.
Organic material collected from trial areas 1, 2 and 3 will be delivered to WSN Environmental Solutions at Chullora for processing. The material will be shredded first before being reprocessed into compost through Open Windrow Composting. Organic material collected from trial area 4 will be delivered to Earthpower at Camellia for reprocessing into compost and green electricity through an anaerobic digester.
Each truck load of organics, recycling and garbage from each of the trial areas including the control area will have their weights recorded. The number and frequency of bins presented for collection will also be recorded to enable accurate comparison of trial areas.
A detailed report on the trial outcomes is expected to be available in November 2007.
Trial Area 1 - Drummoyne
- Solid kitchen bench top bin
- Garden organics bin collected fortnightly
Trail Area 2 Nth Strathfield
- Aerated kitchen bench top bin with cornstarch liner bags
- Garden organics bin collected fortnightly
Trail Area 3 Concord
- Aerated kitchen bench top bin with cornstarch liner bags
- Garden organics bin collected weekly
Trail Area 4 Five Dock
- Multi unit development
- Aerated kitchen bench top bin with cornstarch liner bags
Did you know?
- Almost 50% of the 15,000 tonnes of waste Council sends to landfill each year is food waste or organic material
- Sending waste to landfill is far more expensive than reprocessing it into compost and green electricity
- Recovering food waste is the next big opportunity we have to further reduce our waste to landfill and our waste disposal costs.