Trash Girl digs the dirt on compost

7 December - Popular local initiative, Trash Girl, has joined the Let’s Get Composting Coffs Coast campaign to help residents of Coffs Harbour, Bellingen and Nambucca Valley Council areas turn their scraps into soil by making full use of their green bins.

Trash Girl’s latest series of educational videos encourage everyone in our community to keep all food scraps and garden waste out of landfill.

MidWaste Coordinator Ali Bigg said the first video looks at what can and can’t go in the green bin and features the convenient kitchen caddy, which is available for free to residents of the three Councils with a kerbside bin collection service.

“The video includes top tips for keeping the kitchen caddy and your green bin fresh and clean, which is especially useful as the weather warms up,” Ms Bigg said.

“If you’ve ever wondered what happens when your green-lidded wheelie bin is emptied, the second video in the series takes us on a tour of the Biomass Organics facility where we see the contents of our green bins being transformed into nutrient-rich compost.

“Trash Girl discovers what composting is and why we should all be doing it. By keeping food scraps and garden waste out of landfill, we can reduce greenhouse gases that are dangerous to the environment and costly to manage.

“By properly disposing of all our food and garden waste in the green bin, we can ensure this valuable resource can be reused by local landscapers and gardeners to beautify our region and by local farmers to grow more food,” Ms Bigg said.

Trash Girl, an initiative of Living Lightly, the Sustainable Living Program of Coffs Harbour City Council, highlights the simple solutions we can all take to reduce our impact on the environment and protect the places we love.

Free kitchen caddies make it easy to get composting

1 July 2021 - Residents of Coffs Harbour City, Bellingen Shire and Nambucca Valley Councils that receive a kerbside bin collection service can pick up a free kitchen caddy from 1 July to make it easy to collect food scraps for disposal in the green bin, as part of the Let’s Get Composting Coffs Coast campaign.

All food scraps and garden waste belong in the green bin, which is collected weekly and turned into nutrient-rich compost used on local parks, farms and gardens.

Free kitchen caddy kits will be available in batches over the coming year for residents that receive a kerbside bin collection service to collect from a number of locations across the three Council areas.

The kit contains a helpful list of what can and can’t go in the green bin, as well as practical tips for keeping your caddy and green bin clean and fresh.

The kit also includes a sticker for your kitchen or kerbside bin or to remind everyone in the household that food scraps don’t belong in the red bin.

There is also a larger sticker to display on your green wheelie bin to encourage your whole street to put food scraps and garden waste in the right place.

You can put all food scraps in the green bin, even onions, garlic, citrus peels, meat, bones and soiled paper such as serviettes, and they will be collected every week, reducing smells and pests around your home.

It’s a win-win for our community and our environment. By putting all food scraps and green waste in the green bin, we’re not only reusing these valuable resources, we’re also reducing the greenhouse gases that are produced when these materials breakdown in landfill.

Check the list of caddy collection points here.

This project is a NSW Environment Protection Authority initiative funded from the waste levy.

Let's Get Composting Coffs Coast campaign launches

10 May 2021 - Coffs Harbour City, Bellingen Shire and Nambucca Valley Councils have teamed up to deliver a regional campaign to help educate residents about sustainable ways to dispose of food scraps and garden waste. The ‘Let’s Get Composting Coffs Coast’ campaign will run across the three Local Government Areas for the next year.

The Councils and MidWaste secured funding from the NSW Environment Protection Authority to develop the campaign to encourage residents to put their food scraps and garden waste in their green bins or compost at home in an effort to keep this valuable resource out of landfill.

As part of the Let’s Get Composting Coffs Coast program, 10,000 kitchen caddies will be available for free for residents from 1 June 2021, making it even easier to collect food scraps for disposal in the green wheelie bin.

A survey of Coffs Coast residents found most people know food scraps and garden waste should be placed in the green bin to be composted by Council, and around half are already doing the right thing.

However, an audit of kerbside wheelie bins across the region found up to 40 percent of the contents of red-lidded rubbish bins was food scraps and garden waste that should be placed in green bins, indicating a significant opportunity to improve resource recovery rates locally.

Disposing of all food scraps and garden waste in the green bin or composting at home is one of the easiest things we can do to reduce our carbon footprint, making a positive impact on the planet.

When food and garden waste breaks down in landfill, it produces greenhouse gasses and liquids that are harmful to the environment and costly to manage. Putting it into the red bin is a real waste.

We need to shift our thinking and see food scraps and garden waste as a valuable resource, to be transformed into nutrient-rich compost used to improve local gardens, parks and farms instead of seeing it as a waste product.

You can put all food scraps in the green bin, even onions, garlic, citrus peels, meat, bones and soiled paper such as serviettes, and they will be collected every week, reducing smells and pests around your home.

Residents are encouraged to collect a free kitchen caddy from June from one of many pick up locations across the three Local Government Areas, which are listed here.

The program website provides information about what can and can’t go in the green bin, a behind-the-scenes look at the Biomass Solutions composting process, tips for keeping your kitchen caddy and green bin free from pests and smells, and ways to avoid food waste in the first place.

This project is a NSW Environment Protection Authority initiative funded from the waste levy.