Two hundred households in central Armidale will be the first to try a new kitchen waste collection designed to help reduce waste to landfill.
Five blocks in Armidale between Dangar, Barney, Markham and Mann Streets have been chosen to test run Armidale Dumaresq’s City to Soil initiative, which will involve residents receiving a specially designed vented kitchen benchtop bin and compostable BioBags for the collection of food scraps. The bins, a year’s supply of BioBags (a roll of 150 bags), a sticker and an instruction leaflet will be delivered to homes in the trial area this week.
Residents will then be asked to collect kitchen waste in the bins and BioBags – including fruit and vegetable peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds, leftovers, paper towels, meat and fish. When the bags are full, the corners can be tied together and placed into the green waste wheelie bins, which will now be known as the City to Soil bins. Food and garden waste in the City to Soil wheelie bins will be collected and taken to the Armidale Waste Transfer Station where it will be transformed into high quality compost. The finished compost will be available for sale on a cost recovery basis to local growers.
“The whole idea is to get the food out of the general waste and into the green waste bin where we can do something useful with it,” explains James Turnell, Senior Engineer Utilities at Armidale Dumaresq Council (ADC).
“City to Soil gives Armidale residents the opportunity to be part of the solution. By using the vented bins and compostable bags for food scraps and then placing the bags into the green waste bins along with their unwanted garden waste, we have the opportunity to more than halve the amount of organic waste going into the landfill.”
Residents who correctly participate in the new City to Soil collections will be in the running for a great fortnightly prize.
For more information about the rollout of City to Soil in Armidale visit: www.armidalecitytosoil.blogspot.com.
