Reducing landfill crucial for economic, environmental sustainability
Published on 23 June 2022
Mildura Rural City Council has reaffirmed its commitment to economic and environmental sustainability by setting aspirational targets of zero waste to landfill and zero net emissions from landfill by 2050.
Interim targets of 72% diversion of waste from landfill by 2025 and 80% by 2030 have also been established.
These ambitious goals form the cornerstone of Council’s new four-year Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy, which Councillors adopted this evening.
The Strategy outlines how Council will encourage and support residents and businesses to reduce the amount of waste they generate while ensuring the region has access to sustainable waste and resource recovery infrastructure.
Councillor for Environment and Sustainability, Jason Modica, said the Strategy was a direct response to the significant environmental and economic ramifications of landfilling.
“Sending all our waste to landfill is simply not an option if we want to be sustainable,” Cr Modica said.
“Landfilling is our largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and it costs our community an average of $1.46 million dollars every year.”
The 2022-2026 Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy sets out actions Council has committed to over the coming years around five key areas including:
- Reduce waste generation
- Increase resource recovery
- Beneficial use of organics
- Waste and resource recovery education
- Sustainable waste and resource recovery infrastructure
Among these are introducing a glass recycling service, and ongoing community education programs and behaviour change campaigns to support waste minimisation and resource recovery.
Trials for soft plastics and textile recycling programs, upgrades to rural transfer stations and standardising kerbside bin lid colours are also earmarked.
“We have already seen the beneficial impacts we can make with new infrastructure and by changing our behaviours, Cr Modica said.
“Simply by sorting our food and garden organics we have increased our landfill diversion rate through the kerbside bin service from 31 to 74 per cent. This is a credit to our community, and it proves we can make a difference.”
“But there is still plenty of work to do – especially in reducing how much residents and businesses are delivering directly to the landfill each week.”
More than 300 individuals and groups contributed to the development of the Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy, which is available to read in full online at mildura.vic.gov.au/Strategies