Glass-recycling bins roll out in Victorian council areas

Victorian households will soon gain access to a fourth bin to make recycling more efficient and divert tonnes of waste from landfill.

The purple-lidded bins are specifically for glass recycling, and were rolled out by the Victorian Minister for Environment and Climate Action Lily D’Ambrosio to the Whittlesea council area.

“We’re getting on with rolling out the game-changing new four-stream recycling system, keeping glass and other valuable resources out of landfill and recycling them into new products,” D’Ambrosio said.

“Our new household recycling services will maximise our recycling capacity, create new jobs and divert 80% of waste from landfill by 2030, reducing emissions by 50% by the same year.”

Separate glass recycling services will be rolled out to all local government areas by 2027, with universal food and garden organics (FOGO) collection by 2030. The separation of glass from other recycling streams means the material will be able to dealt with more efficiently, and turned into more products.

The Recycling Victoria Household Education and Behaviour Change Fund will see 15 councils share a pool of $1 million to be used to implement local campaigns or to improve existing four-stream household recycling services.

Such four-stream systems (garbage, mixed recycling, FOGO and glass) exist currently in six local government areas: Moyne, Central Goldfields, Warrnambool, Hobson’s Bay, Surf Coast and Macedon Ranges shires. A seventh area, Frankston, will adopt the service by 2023.

All councils and alpine resort management boards are eligible for funding under the $6.03 million Circular Economy Household Education Fund.

Using the four bins will see 80% of material diverted from landfill, including 20,000 tonnes of glass.

Over $515 million has been invested by the Victorian Government into the transformation and reform of the state’s waste and recycling industry. The investment has included $380 million to deliver Recycling Victoria to implement circular economy systems.

For more information, visit sustainability.vic.gov.au/grants-funding-and-investment/funded-projects-2

Image credit: iStock.com/netrun78