Golden Plains Shire Council adopted the Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy 2020-2030 on 25 August 2020. Thank you to everyone who took part in the strategy's consultation process in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
About
Council’s Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy is a 10-year strategic plan for several service areas including garbage, recycling and organic waste collections, transfer station, waste education, litter and illegal dumping, and closed landfills and rehabilitation.
The Strategy has a range of interim targets and goals to be met over the next five years, as well as aspirational goals to work towards by 2030. The actions that are presented in the Strategy have been tailored through the results of the community engagement, analysis of waste data, the Victorian Government’s recycling reforms, including its four bin policy, and the state of current waste processing infrastructure.
As part of the community engagement, 1,209 people completed the Waste Management Survey in 2018, 723 residents completed the Future Waste Options Survey in 2019, and Council received 18 responses during the Draft Strategy’s public exhibition in July 2020. The final Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy is now available online here.
Engagement Update
In developing the Draft Strategy, Council undertook two rounds of significant community engagement. A Waste Management Survey was conducted in November 2018 to gain an understanding of how the community currently manages their waste and satisfaction with the current kerbside collection services, including which areas need improvement. Thank you to the 1,209 people who took completed the survey.
Some of the findings included:
- 73% supported reducing the volume of waste going to landfill;
- 68.3% reported a positive level of satisfaction with the garbage service;
- 91.1% reported satisfaction with the kerbside recycling service;
- A majority indicated that no cost increase was preferred to help reduce waste to landfill.
Council undertook further community engagement process during September and October 2019 through the establishment of a community panel and a survey to gain feedback from residents on the five service options. The first option was to keep the current garbage and recycling service; the four remaining options detailed new garden and Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) services, and listed information on the service, including the estimated cost to ratepayers and the potential diversion from landfill achieved with the service. Respondents were asked to mark each option with: Strongly Agree; Agree; Disagree; or Strongly Disagree. Thank you to 723 Golden Plains residents who completed the Future Waste Services survey.
Here's what the 723 respondents told Council:
Although none of the options commanded overwhelming support, the first two options received more than 50% support. Since this survey, the Victorian Government has announced its four bins policy, which will make it mandatory to introduce a food and garden organics bin or access to service by 2030.
During the Draft Strategy's exhibition period in July 2020, Council received 18 responses.
How You Can Be Involved
Golden Plains Shire Council adopted the Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy 2020-2030 on 25 August 2020. Thank you to everyone who took part in the strategy's consultation process in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The final Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy is now available online here.