

The food and garden waste collected from kerbside organics bins in Nillumbik Shire was too contaminated to be recycled into compost. In response, the council launched Bin Blitz: a bin inspection and education program that reduced the number of contaminated bins by 63% in just nine months.
Snapshot
Organisation
Nillumbik Shire Council
Project
Bin Blitz program to reduce contamination in the combined food and garden organics kerbside collection service.
Objectives
Help residents use the organics bin correctly to decrease contamination and allow maximum composting of waste so the council avoids sending waste to landfill and paying contamination penalties.
Outcomes
- Number of contaminated household organics bins reduced from 12 to 4.45% (63% reduction)
- Contamination by weight reduced from 10.5 to 0.79% (92% reduction)
- Estimated saving in avoided penalty costs of $280,000