WEEKLY Green-lid Food and Garden Organics Bin

The food and garden waste we send to our green-lid organics bin is sent to Soilco, a commercial composting facility located in Tweed. Here it is turned into compost and used throughout the region to nourish soil and grow food that ultimately ends up back on our plates, therefore completing the food cycle.

By putting the right things into your green-lid bin, we can all play our part to reduce landfill and ensure our food cycle keeps coming around.

Here’s what’s accepted in your green-lid organics bin:

greenbin

Keep out:

  • Rocks, soil, treated timber.
  • Packaging, cardboard and paper (even if they say they are compostable).
  • Any plastic bags including degradable or biodegradable bags unless they are certified compostable AS4736.

A-Z examples of what’s accepted in your green-lid food and garden waste bin:

  • Ash (cold)
  • Bamboo food containers and cutlery
  • Bones (meat and seafood – cooked or raw)
  • Branches (maximum 60cm long x 10cm diameter)
  • Bread and bakery foods
  • Coffee grinds (no pods)
  • Compostable caddy bin liners – must be certified AS4736. See further details in ‘Using your Kitchen Caddy to sort food scraps’ section below.
  • Dairy products e.g. cheese, cream, yoghurt
  • Eggs and eggshells (cooked or raw)
  • Flowers and dead plants
  • Food scraps (all)
  • Fruit and vegetables, scraps, peelings (cooked or raw)
  • Garden trimmings
  • Grass clippings
  • Hair
  • Leaves
  • Leftover meals (remove all packaging)
  • Meat scraps (cooked or raw)
  • Pasta and noodles
  • Palm fronds (bend to fit within your bin so lid will close)
  • Rice and grains
  • Seafood and seafood shells e.g. prawn/oyster shells (cooked or raw)
  • Seeds
  • Tea leaves
  • Timber off-cuts (small, NOT treated. No paint, nails or fittings attached)
  • Weeds – all

Using the Kitchen Caddy to sort food scraps

Your kitchen caddy will help you separate food waste from all other waste easily. Keep your caddy close to where you would usually prepare or handle food, food scraps and leftovers e.g. next to the kitchen sink.

  • Line the caddy with a certified AS 4736 compostable liner OR place your food scraps directly into the caddy with no liner.
  • Place all food scraps (cooked or raw) into your kitchen caddy. Keep the lid closed after use to prevent pests.
  • Every couple of days tie the top of the bag to seal and place it into your GREEN-LID BIN.

Tips:

Empty your kitchen caddy regularly and keep it away from direct sunlight to prevent odours. Freeze smelly items until bin night. You can do this using one of the green compostable caddy liners, which are easy to spot in your freezer.

  • Which caddy liner is OK? Only Australian certified AS 4736 compostable bin liners are accepted (look for the seedling logo as pictured above). Degradable, biodegradable and other bags claiming to be part compostable only break down into micro-plastics, which are definitely not wanted in our compost.
  • Keep compostable liners in a cool place so they don’t break down before you use them. Instead of compostable liners, you can also line the kitchen caddy with newspaper or use no liner at all.
  • Empty forgotten leftovers or soggy packets of lettuce into your kitchen caddy, but make sure the packaging doesn’t go in!
  • Throwing away too many leftovers or forgotten foods? Check if you’re storing your food right with this handy A-Z of food storage guide. Join love food hate waste at lovefoodhatewaste.nsw.gov.au

 

caddy
compostable logo

The benefits of diverting food from landfill:

Food and garden matter can be recycled into compost which contains nutrients and energy that are lost if this material is landfilled.

Until recently, sending food waste to landfill was the most common disposal option. Unlike composting, a landfill is a closed system, meaning food and organic matter decomposes without oxygen (anaerobically). As a result, harmful liquids (leachate) are produced, as well as odours and Methane; a greenhouse gas with 20x the potency of Carbon Dioxide.

The rapid decay of food in a landfill system also speeds up the decomposition of other organic materials, including high carbon materials such as paper and timber. This further increases the rate of Greenhouse gas emissions from landfill.

By sending food and garden waste to a composting system rather than landfill, we can all play our part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the other harmful byproducts produced.

Find out more about the our regional Scrap Together Campaign, created to help us reduce food waste and ensure every food scrap is kept out of landfill.