Warrnambool has an ambitious plan to send no waste to landfill by 2040 but in a catch-22 situation, the city doesn't actually produce enough rubbish to set up a viable processing facility, a councillor says.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Cr Ben Blain said achieving the ambitious goal set out in the council's 2040 plan was a difficult issue for the city because many of the current processors relied on 10 times the amount of waste.
"It's a double-edged sword where we have to produce more in order to have a viable facility, but then we don't want to increase our waste," Cr Blain said.
"We're sort of in a catch-22."
But the option of joining forces with other councils also created another set of problems, Cr Blain said.
"Going to a regional facility for regional Victoria could be seen as another option, but freight costs and emissions because of the transfer of the waste is going to be another issue that will hurt that," he said.
Cr Blain said the council may need to "watch and see" what advances were made in waste technology in order to have a micro-facility.
"I don't know if technology has moved to that point yet," he said.
"I don't know what the answer is in getting our waste to zero.
"It's a great goal and I think it's really exciting but with a non-commercial amount of waste being created by our town...this zero waste to landfill is going to be a challenge for council to realise.
"As technology moves forward and new technology moves into this field and new options become available, I'm sure by 2040 this will become a reality."
Cr Blain made the comments at this week's council meeting when its released the draft waste strategy, which was done in-house by staff, to set the direction for the city over the next four years.
The strategy will also review the effectiveness of the city's night-time kerbside collection with the city investigating whether it was viable to trial moving FOGO to a weekly collection rather than fortnightly.
When the container deposit scheme is introduced in 2023, the fortnightly glass collection will also undergo a review.
Cr Angie Paspaliaris also called for night-time glass collection to be modified.
"I consider noisy glass collections late in the evenings as unacceptable," she said.
Cr Ben Blain questioned whether the council had the frequency of its bin collection regime right.
"It would be good to get some feedback on the strategy to see if this is something we might want to review," he said.
Cr Paspaliaris also highlighted the success of the FOGO waste bins - an audit carried out last year finding just 1.1 per cent was contaminated.
A number of councillors praised the work of the council for being a leader in waste management.
Cr Debbie Arnott said Warrnambool should be very proud.
"We were first council in Victoria to devise the four-bin system which has now been mandated by state government, the first council in Victoria to adopt a municipal waste FOGO service and fortnightly garbage collection to reduce waste volume and waste to landfill," she said.
She said it was a bold ambition trying to achieve zero waste to landfill by 2040.
"It's a visionary statement and to achieve such outcomes, we're going to have to change," Cr Arnott said.
Cr Vicki Jellie said the strategy aimed to deliver better economic and environmental outcome for the city.
She said education was a major key, and the city needed to keep abreast of new technology for the future.
Council invests about $30,000 annually in waste education and awareness programs.
CORONAVIRUS STORIES:
We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we aim to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark https://www.standard.net.au/
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines
- and newsletters.
- Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
- Tap here to open our Google News page.
- Join our Courts and Crime Facebook group and our dedicated Sport Facebook group
- Subscribe
Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.