Yarra City Council trials glass and food waste recycling
Yarra City Council is conducting a new kerbside waste separation trial with 1300 households in Abbotsford, in a move towards a more circular economy.
They have identified specific items that are valuable to the Australian recycling industry, including glass and food waste, ensuring that they’ll find a new life as a new product and not end up in landfill or overseas.
The trial was made possible through $200,000 in funding via our Research, Development and Demonstration Grants.
1300 households will receive a mini plastic crate for glass recycling and a green lid bin for food waste recycling.
Glass creates problems for the recycling system as it often breaks and gets mixed in with plastics and paper, making these harder to recycle.
Separating glass items from other recyclables means glass is more likely to remain a high-quality product that can be turned into something new. It also improves the quality of the other materials in the recycling bin by removing contamination from broken glass.
The collected glass will be turned into new glass products such as bottles and jars. Any glass that can’t be recycled into bottles will be used in road resurfacing works in the Yarra City Council area.
It is estimated that around 38% of recycling bins in the Yarra City Council trial area are comprised of glass bottles and jars, so separating the waste will make a big difference.
Read more on the City of Yarra website.
About the grant program
The Research, Development and Demonstration grants program supports innovative research, product development and trialling of projects that can increase the quantity of recycled products used in the state.
We support the collaboration between industry and universities to develop new products that use recycled materials, to grow the circular economy.
See the full list of Research, Development and Demonstration grant recipients.
