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Get your free kitchen caddy at these pop-up events  

Ulong Cafe, Saturday 25 June, 10am - 1pm

Funkya @ Unkya Markets, Sunday 26 June, 8am - 1pm

Keep an eye out here for more dates!

join the compost revolution

14 February - Residents of the Coffs Harbour, Bellingen and Nambucca Valley Council areas are joining the Compost Revolution and turning food scraps into soil at home with discounted composting gear delivered to their door.  

As part of the Let’s Get Composting Coffs Coast campaign, local households can access affordable compost bins or worm farms and online training tutorials showing how to make the most of their compost system.

MidWaste Coordinator Ali Bigg said residents can now access the Compost Revolution offer as well as collect a free Kitchen Caddy to help ensure all food scraps are either composted at home or put in the green bin to be turned into compost at Council’s organics facility.

“Each household can help avoid around 100 kg of food waste from entering our waste stream every year, and instead it can easily be turned into valuable fertile soil or nutrient rich liquid fertilizer right at home,” Ms Bigg said. “Whether you're a seasoned composter or just starting out, Compost Revolution gives you the skills and support you need to eliminate food waste and improve your garden.

“This offer is ideal for residents who want to reap the rewards of home composting, keen gardeners, those who don’t have a kerbside green bin service, and families who want to teach their kids about compost.”

According to Compost Revolution, about half of what the average Australian household throws out is food scraps and organics.  “And it is not just the food that is wasted, it is all the resources taken to get that food to your home and table. Food waste is responsible for 3% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions – 17.5million tonnes of CO2e. The great thing is, we can all do something about it, right now!” Ms Bigg said.

The Compost Revolution program has diverted 21,474 Tonnes of waste from landfills across 71,623 households in 35 Council areas. Healthy, compost-rich soils absorb more water than typical soil, reducing water run off during heavy rains. It also sequesters carbon from the atmosphere, drawing down emissions in the process.  

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.

Lifting the lid on local waste behaviours

9 November - Residents of the Coffs Harbour, Bellingen and Nambucca areas are great recyclers, but there is room for improvement when it comes to getting our food scraps into the green bin, according to a local waste audit.

MidWaste Coordinator Ali Bigg said almost 40% (37.2%) of the stuff we’re putting in the red bin belongs in the green bin so it can be made into compost.“

Any food scraps and garden waste in our red bin ends up in landfill where it breaks down and produces greenhouse gases that are costly to manage and dangerous to the environment,” Ms Bigg said.

“Only 38% of the loose food waste found in kerbside bins was found where it should be – in the green bin. That means most of our food scraps are landing in the wrong bin and we’re wasting the opportunity to turn them into valuable compost for use on local parks, gardens and farms.”

“If we all did the right thing and put all our food scraps into the green bin, we could divert an additional 57 tonnes of food waste from landfill every year and prevent more than 130 tonnes of CO2 e from being released into the atmosphere.”

Ms Bigg said the good news is we’re great recyclers in this region, with 91% of recyclable materials being properly placed in the yellow-lidded kerbside bin.

“We’re also doing extremely well when it comes to correctly disposing of garden waste, with 99% of vegetation found where it belongs in the green bin,” Ms Bigg said.

“Contamination in the green bin was found to be reasonably low at 1.4%, with the main contaminant of concern being food waste still in its containers, so it’s important to remember to take food out of its packaging. Other contaminants were plastic bags and plastic film, ceramics, rocks, textiles, and nappies which don’t belong in the green bin.”

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.

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