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Environment

Green waste

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From July 2021 we went green with a mandatory green organics service in an effort to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

What going green means for you

From 1 July 2021 green organic services became mandatory for properties within the township boundaries of Angaston, Cockatoo Valley, Eden Valley, Lyndoch, Mount Pleasant, Moculta, Nuriootpa, Penrice, Sandy Creek, Springton, Stockwell, Tanunda, and Williamstown.

The green organic bin collection will now occur fortnightly, on the same day but opposite week to your recycling (yellow lid) bin collection. From Monday, 5 July 2021 weekday bin collections commenced. Saturday green organic bin collections ceased 3, July 2021.

If you put forward an expression of interest application to be exempt from the green organic service before Wednesday, 30 June 2021, your application will be assessed and if proved eligible you'll be exempt from the new mandatory service that commenced Monday, 5 July 2021.

Residents living in Eden Valley, Moculta, and Sandy Creek, will have until Friday, 23 July 2021 to provide an expression of interest application to be exempt from the green organic service due to being late inclusions for the service.

Once received, applications may take up to 10 business days to be assessed and for us to provide you with an update. In some instances, we may require further information from you to help with the assessment of your application.

Charges for the green organic service will be found on our Fees and Charges Register.

Food organics and gardens organics (FOGO)

If you live within the townships of Nuriootpa, Tanunda, Angaston, Penrice, Lyndoch, Williamstown, Cockatoo Valley, Sandy Creek, Stockwell, Springton, Eden Valley, Moculta or Mount Pleasant We provide a 240L green organics bin service.

The green organic waste service includes the collection of organic matter (i.e. food scraps) that can be placed in the bin. You will also receive a kitchen caddy at no additional cost. This is a convenient unit is designed specifically to capture, store and transport food waste.

Please ensure that only materials deemed suitable for collection are placed in the green organics bin so that waste is not contaminated and can be processed for reuse as mulch or compost with domestic and agricultural applications. The green organic waste service is included as a service charge that is applied to the Council rates notices.

I already had a green organic bin, what does that mean for me?

If you're a property owner and already had a green organic bin, there is only a minor change to the service, with bins being collected on a weekday rather than the weekend.

The service day now aligns with your general (red lid) waste service, on alternate weeks to your recycling (yellow lid) waste service. The service will continue to be provided on a fortnightly basis at this stage.

If you implement a suitable composting system and no longer require a green organic service, you may apply for a green organic service exemption.

If you're a tenant that previously paid for the optional service, you'll no longer be billed as the cost will become the responsibility of the ratepayer.

Apply to opt-out

If you believe you meet the assessment criteria and conditions^ for the exemption and you'd like to express interest in opting-out of the mandatory service, you can do so by filling out the form below.

Please note that submitting the form does not guarantee you automatic exemption from the mandatory green organic service as each request is individually assessed. Please allow 10 working days for your application to be assessed. If you are eligible to be exempt from the service, the service charges will be removed at the commencement of the next financial year.

Request for Green Organic Service Exemption Form

Contact details
Name
Are you the property owner, rate payer or property manager? *

You must be a property owner, rate payer or managing agent for the property to complete this application

Site address

This can be found on your rates notice

Refer to the Assessment criteria and conditions for more details

Please provide the following documentation^

^Assessment criteria and conditions

  1. A property is eligible for the Green Organic Service exception if the property is within the designated
    mandatory collection route
  2. Photographic evidence of a suitable onsite composting system (compost pile or bay, static or tumbling compost bins) will be required for the service exemption to be considered.
  3. A signed Statutory Declaration stating that green waste is managed through other means and will not be placed in general waste bin is to be included with the application.
  4. You must be the property owner or ratepayer to put forward an application for the Green Organic Service Exemption.
  5. An application for the Green Organic Service Exemption does not guarantee that a service exemption will be applied to the property.
  6. You are required to notify Council if your circumstances change, this includes moving from your current premises.
  7. In the event that a property is sold, the Green Organic service exemption will be revoked, charges will be reinstated on the rates notice and a Green Organic bin will be delivered to the property
  8. Bins that are assigned to the property must not be removed from the property when there is a change of tenants or sale of the property. All bins remain the property of SOLO Resource Recovery.

FAQs

Council is committed to reducing the area’s contribution of waste to landfill through a variety of measures. In line with this commitment, Council obtained a grant under the Green Industries SA Kerbside Performance Plus Food Waste Incentive program to assist in implementing a more sustainable and efficient food organics recycling system with the goal of achieving targets within South Australia's Waste Strategy 2015-2020.

An independent kerbside bin audit conducted last year by KESAB Environmental Solutions revealed that 47% of waste found in general (red lid) bins were actually organic material which could be more effectively disposed of through a green organics (green lid) bin.

There are multiple benefits to having a green waste service including:

  • By diverting just a portion (20%) of the organic waste from landfill to the appropriate stream, Council could save around $45,963 a year on the landfill levy (based on a $71.50 per tonne levy). In the long term, such significant savings could then be passed on to ratepayers.
  • For residents that weren't previously subscribed to the green organic service, the new service will reduce the amount of waste that goes into your general waste bin, which is convenient if you have difficulty fitting your waste into your existing bin.
  • If you already compost, the green organic service will help you to dispose of material that you wouldn’t normally compost at home, such as pet excrement, bones, and meat or seafood scraps.
  • If you currently take green waste to the Springton Transfer Station or another facility, you may no longer need to make those trips, saving you money and time. If you generate a lot of garden waste, such as grass clippings and prunings, you can spread it across multiple green organic bin collections.

Expressions of interest to be exempt from the green organic service are reviewed on an annual basis.

If you put forward an expression of interest application to be exempt from the green organic service before Wednesday, 30 June 2021, your application will be assessed and if proved eligible you'll be exempt from the new mandatory service that Monday, 5 July 2021.

Residents living in Eden Valley, Moculta, and Sandy Creek, will have until Friday, 23 July 2021 to provide an expression of interest application to be exempt from the green organic service due to being late inclusions for the service.

Once received, applications may take up to 10 business days to be assessed and for us to provide you with an update. In some instances, we may require further information from you to help with the assessment of your application.

Properties within the township boundaries of Angaston, Cockatoo Valley, Eden Valley, Lyndoch, Mount Pleasant, Moculta, Nuriootpa, Penrice, Sandy Creek, Springton, Stockwell, Tanunda, and Williamstown are classified as mandatory for the service.

Roll out of the bins for the mandatory service commenced late June 2021 with the weekday service collection commencing the week of Monday, 5 July 2021.

Charges will begin to appear on rates notices from 1 July 2021.

If you haven't received your green organic bin by Friday, 9 July 2021 please contact SOLO direct on 8295 5077.

The final Saturday collection of green bins was Saturday, 3 July 2021.

An annual fee will be applied to rates notices from 1 July 2021 and will be found in our Fees and Charges Register. Annual fees will be reviewed each year as part of the budgeting process to account for collection and disposal costs for delivering the service to ratepayers.

Tenants that previously paid for the service will no longer be billed under the mandatory proposal as the cost will become the responsibility of the ratepayer.

The following items can go into your green organic bin:

  • Lawn clippings
  • Weeds, branches, and garden matter
  • Leaves and small prunings
  • Cut flowers
  • Food scraps and peels
  • Cake and bread scraps
  • Teabags and coffee grounds
  • Meat scraps and bones (cooked or raw)
  • Seafood (cooked or raw)
  • Eggshells and oyster shells
  • Tissues and paper towels
  • Dairy products (eg. cheese and yoghurt)
  • Manure and pet excrement
  • Hair
  • Fruit and vegetables
  • Compostable bags

Further details of what is accepted in the kerbside collection services can found at ‘Which Bin’.

Residents who can reasonably demonstrate that they are effectively managing the disposal of green organic waste from their property are encouraged to apply for the green organic service exemption.

If you put forward an expression of interest application to be exempt from the green organic service before Wednesday, 30 June 2021, your application will be assessed and if proved eligible you'll be exempt from the new mandatory service that commenced Monday, 5 July 2021.

Residents living in Eden Valley, Moculta, and Sandy Creek, will have until Friday, 23 July 2021 to provide an expression of interest application to be exempt from the green organic service due to being late inclusions for the service.

Once received, applications may take up to 10 business days to be assessed and for us to provide you with an update. In some instances, we may require further information from you to help with the assessment of your application.

To put forward an application for the green organic service exemption you must be the property owner or ratepayer, and you must be able to demonstrate that you are effectively managing the disposal of green organic waste from your property.

The charge for one (1) of the green organic bins will become the responsibility of the property owner. An invoice will be issued for the remaining green organic bins. For example, if you have two (2) green organic bins, the charge for one (1) green organic bin will move onto rates notices and be paid by the property owner, and an invoice will be issued to you for the cost of the other green organic bin.

Kitchen caddies will be supplied at the same time as the green organic bin, however, the kitchen caddy is not mandatory. If you do not wish to use the supplied kitchen caddy you may return it (unused) to any Council branch location.

If you did not receive a kitchen caddy with your green organic service, contact us and we can organise a kitchen caddy for you.

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