FAQs

Council will introduce changes to how household waste is collected and processed across our Shire. Expected features of the revised collection approach are:

• Introduction of a separate glass collection or glass drop off service. While less expensive, a drop off service will require extra people and buildings at Council’s Resource Recovery Centre (at the old Monkey Gully Tip).
• Introduction of a collection or drop off service for food organics and garden organic waste.
• The possible change of residual garbage collection frequency from weekly to fortnightly services. This change of frequency will coincide with the introduction of a food & garden organic waste service.

A community survey conducted as part of drafting Council's Environment Strategy found that waste management including recycling opportunities and green waste management were the most important most important issues for survey respondents, even more important that climate change.

Recycling and waste services in Mansfield Shire are also large, complex and expensive.

Each week our collection contractor drives down nearly every road and street in Mansfield Shire to collect from 6,626 serviced properties. In the last year Council contractors picked up kerbside bins that contained 2,630 tonnes of residual waste (general waste that is sent to landfill) and 1,370 tonnes of recycling. 

Collection and disposal of waste and recycling in Mansfield Shire costs about $2.3 million each year and this cost is rising with increased landfill charges and contract increases.

We therefore need to make well considered decisions about how we best collect and process the Shire’s recycling and waste so it is done cost efficiently while minimising the environmental impacts of this service.

These reforms are needed to stop food and garden organic being sent to landfill, which is costly and generates greenhouse gases. They will also make it easier for our residents to recycle and reduce contamination of recyclable material. This means that recyclables can be turned into higher value materials.

By helping recyclers and organics processors produce more valuable products that are wanted by manufactures and producers, our community can ensure that our kerbside collection service is sustainable, reliable and its environmental impact is minimised.

The Victorian Government requires that a separate glass service be in place by 2027 and a separate garden & food organic service be in place by 2030. To smoothly change over to these new services, Council plans to adopt these new services by the introduction of a separate:

• garden & food organic collection service on 1 July 2024, including a possible change of the residual (general) waste collection service from weekly to fortnightly.
• glass collection service also on 1 July 2024

Note: Until finalisation of the final service model, confirmed contractor service availability and service transition plans, these timing are provisional. Mansfield Shire Council may, after receiving community feedback and after further exploring service model of options, decide to review this timetable.

With rising costs for waste disposal fees, contract charges & wages plus the additional services for the glass and garden &food organics streams, the costs of the Shire's new recycling and waste services will increase.

To minimise the size of this increase Mansfield Shire Council has joined with ten other councils to collaboratively procure these new services. By using this approach Council hopes to build resilience in the recycling sector and deliver cost effective, safe, innovative and reliable recycling services for councils.

Once responses to this collaborative procurement are assessed and the final service model for the new service is agreed, Council can confirm the cost of the new services.

One option to reduce the overall cost of the new service model is to reduce the frequency of the residual waste (red lid bin) kerbside service from weekly to fortnightly, and to have glass and garden &food organics services as drop off services rather than a kerbside pick up service. 

As these decisions will have a major impact on the cost and service level of the recycling and waste service, they will be a major part of the community engagement that will occur on these changes. 

Our Shire's food and garden waste isn’t currently separated so our green waste is sent to landfill, a trip that requires a round trip of about 130 km.

An audit of residual waste bins completed in Spring 2021 showed that on average about 39% of our residual waste could have been put into a food and garden organic waste bin.

This means that about 950 tonnes of green waste was sent to landfill last year rather than being used more productively, for example as compost. The green waste was also transported further and cost more to be disposed of than could be the case if there was a separate green waste stream that was processed locally. Council is currently conducting a feasibility study into local green waste processing.

A Council study has also found that if this green waste was composted rather than put in landfill, it would reduce the greenhouse gases produced by about 1,024 tonnes per year.

There are two issues.

According to the Recycling Victoria, “Glass creates problems when mixed with other recyclables because it often breaks and becomes embedded in plastics and paper, making them harder to recycle and of lower value. 

Secondly, if recyclable glass is collected separately it has a much lower contamination rate, typically between 0 to 3%. This glass can be used to make new glass bottles, however, recycled glass from commingled bins has much higher contamination levels and so can only be used in lower applications such as roadways. 

An audit of the Shire's commingled recycling bins in Spring 2021 found that about 45% of the 1,370 tonnes of commingled recycling collected in the Mansfield Shire last year was glass recycling. 

So the separation of glass from our commingled recycling is important as it will mean that not only will nearly half of our commingled recycling be used in higher order applications, it will also increase the value of other collected recycling.

By 2027, all Victorian councils must implement a service that separates glass recycling from other materials.

A 2017 bin audit completed in the Mansfield Shire found that an estimated 45% by weight of material collected in residual waste bins was garden or food organic waste. A follow up 2021 bin audit found that on average about 38.9% or 3.1 kg of material collected in a typical residual waste bin was garden or food waste.

In the current two bin system, about 950 tonnes per year of garden or food waste all goes to landfill. If this garden or food waste is collected separately it can be used to make useful products like compost. This composting process is also estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 1,024 tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030 compared to the decomposition of this garden or food waste in landfill.

The separation of garden or food waste from residual waste will also reduce the demand of scare landfill space as it will be diverted from landfill to make compost and, if a local composting facility is established, this could also reduce the waste miles that this garden or food waste is transported.

Finally, as the compost made from garden or food waste is a marketable product and also won't attract the steadily increasing fees for disposal in landfill, the separation of garden and food waste from residual waste may also reduce the cost of disposal of this waste.

To prepare for these changes in recycling and waste services, Council will:

• Engage widely with the community to identify community needs and how Council can best implement service changes.
• Work with kerbside collection, recycling and organics processing service partners to ensure that the changes deliver the best outcomes for our community
• Work closely with the Victorian Government on our progress.
• Developing a detailed plan to the roll out of the change in services

As these reform activities progress, Council will continue to update the community on changes and support community members adapt to the new collection services. 

Council will keep our community informed of the main impacts of these service changes. Council will provide details on:

• The new services to be introduced
• Potential changes in the appearance of kerbside bins (mainly changes to bin lid colours)
• Potential changes in the timing of residual garbage collection and/or commingled recycling collection services
• Changes in the items that can be placed in each bin
• Potential impacts on recycling and waste service charges.

While there is no definitive definition of deliberative engagement, The Short Guide to Deliberative Engagement for Victorian Councils EBook defines a similar term, deliberative democracy, as:

“Deliberation is a long and careful consideration or discussion. Public deliberation, when used with the term ‘democracy’ describes a group of everyday people considering relevant facts from multiple points of view, identifying options, and coming to a group decision. The deliberative group is randomly selected through an independent process that ensures they are descriptively representative of the demographics of the general population. 

Deliberative democracy or public deliberation is all about placing people (citizens, residents, affected individuals) closer to the affairs of government. It is being used in many countries to complement representative democracy; to provide elected representatives with well-informed advice on complex issues. 

Public deliberation is one form of ‘high influence’ community engagement. The expectation is that the convening organisation will implement the recommendations to the greatest extent possible. However, it does not replace or take away from the decision-making powers of elected representatives.”

One community participant in a deliberative process said that deliberative processes, “…  allow you to put forward a problem, explain the possible options, present research and different opinions on all the possible outcomes and allow (the community) to come to you with well researched and reasoned recommendations.”

Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula Shire Council used deliberative engagement to help prepare their new waste management strategy. The key areas of the strategy were their household kerbside collection service, resource recovery infrastructure, landfill and the development of alternative waste technologies.

Waste management is often a contentious issue, and this was no different in Mornington Peninsula. The Shire's main landfill site was due to be full by 2017 and a high proportion of the region's greenhouse gas emissions were generated from landfill. 

The consultation results were fed into the Council's Beyond Zero Waste Strategy. The strategy takes note of the engagement process and also notes a second round of consultation where the public were invited to comment on the draft bill. Ultimately, the Council's strategy was broadly in line with the preferences expressed by participants at the deliberative forum about the reduction of landfill waste. In particular, the Council decided to close the Rye landfill site in 2018 and sought expressions of interest for alternative sites/operators. 

The idea of moving landfill to an alternative site off the peninsula was most preferred by attendees at the deliberative forum.

In a first for Queensland, in 2014 Noosa Council convened a community jury on organic waste management to deliberate on waste minimisation, in particular “what is the best option for minimising organic waste sent to landfill?”

The Council adopted the jury's recommendations in principle and proposed two workshops to discuss costs and timing. Workshops were held in September 2014 and in December 2015 after which the Council began to implement the jury's recommendations with the launch of a 'Towards Zero Waste' education campaign. 

As a result of the jury's recommendations, the Council will provide all new homes with a green waste bin and is working towards making this a service for all coastal homes. The Noosa Council's Waste Reduction Recycling Plan 2016 - 2024 focuses on increasing recycling uptake and deferred decision on rolling out a full food waste collection service. 

The Mansfield Shire Community Vision 2024 and its summary has five domains:

• Community and people,
• Health and wellbeing,
• Environment and place,
• Infrastructure and services, and
• Prosperity and economy.

The new recycling and waste contract and the community engagement that will help decide the service model for the contract will contribute to each of these domains.

Community members agreed that they had key roles in Mansfield Shire achieving its Vision. The community contributions relevant to the new recycling and waste contract were:

• Minimise and re-use waste
• Reduce personal carbon footprint
• A transparent recycling system for all wastes generated within the shire.

The contributions relevant to the community engagement for the new recycling and waste contract were:

• Engage with Council more and decision-making
• Help to educate, inform and consult with community

The Mansfield Shire Council Plan 2021-2025 has three themes

• Connected and Healthy Community
• Vibrant Liveability
• A Trusted, Effective and Efficient Council

The new recycling and waste contract and the community engagement that will help decide the service model for the contract will contribute to each of these themes.

As part of community engagement for the Mansfield Shire Vision, community members rated the sub-domains of the Council Plan.

Community members rated “Minimise and re-use waste” as the equal second most important sub-domain in the Council Plan with a rating of 4.49 out of 5.0. 

Community members also rated “Council to better utilise community in decision-making” as the seventh most important sub-domain in the Council Plan with a rating of 4.39 out of 5.0. 

Hence the new recycling and waste contract and the related community engagement are key parts of delivering the Mansfield Shire Council Plan 2021-2025.

Don't worry, we won't have a situation like the one in this Mark Knight cartoon below.

Council will work with our service contract to ensure that the collection schedule has a maximum of two bins collected each day, as is the case with the current collection schedule in the Mansfield Shire.

If you want to check out how your commingled (mixed) recycling is sorted ready for recycling, please have a look at this video from the processor of commingled recycling from Mansfield Shire, Cleanaway.

https://youtu.be/tX1Cld6gbzs

In January 2022 Council received the report of the Review and Audit of Public Waste and Recycling Infrastructure in Mansfield Shire that recommended that each of Council's 106 public waste bins be paired with a recycling bin. Currently Mansfield Shire has 40 recycling bins and so Council's 2022/23 budget has funded the placement these additional 66 bins.

The same report also found that the average contamination rate of commingled recycling in Mansfield Shire public bins was 14.5%. So please take care to only place recyclable material in our recycling bins.

This page is provided by Council’s recycling and waste contractor, Cleanaway, and explains how you can make sure that you don’t contribute to the 8% contamination of our recycling. This occurs when non-recyclable waste is placed in the wrong bin. 

www.cleanaway.com.au/greenius-module/

Unfortunately, most bins smell, but experience elsewhere shows that there is no difference in the smell of garbage bins after a fortnight when garbage, including nappies and other sanitary waste, is bagged or wrapped in plastic. That is, the odour of the garbage bin after two weeks was rated the same as after one week if this garbage is bagged.

Seven years ago the Rural City of Wangaratta implemented their garden and food organics service and changed the pickup frequency of their residual (general) waste bin from weekly to fortnightly. Their experience was that most of the material that caused the residual bin to smell could be put in the garden and food organics bin, that was collected weekly. So while it took Wangaratta community members a few months to get used to a fortnightly residual (general) waste service and weekly garden and food organics bin service, after a few months of this service being in place, they came to see the logic in this service change and accepted it.

Regardless of the final service option chosen, residents will continue to be able to choose from a set number of bin sizes to find the right size that suits their needs. For some residents, like those who use lots of nappies, this will mean asking for a larger bin. Additional fees may apply for larger bins, however, some households may be eligible for a concession.

Audits of recycling bins completed in 2017 and then again in Spring 2021 found that contamination of recycling bins had increased from 7% in 2017 to 10.7% in 2021. 

The report highlighted that one reason for this increase was that recycling packed in plastic bags was treated as contamination.

If you pack your recycling in plastic bags or stack it tightly together it can’t be mechanically sorted.

If you want to check out how your commingled (mixed) recycling is sorted and why this is an issue, please have a look at this video from the processor of commingled recycling from Mansfield Shire, Cleanaway.

https://youtu.be/tX1Cld6gbzs

Yes. The carbon batteries like the ones used in torches, power tools, remote controls or mobile pones can be recycled.

As long as they weigh less than 5 kg you can drop off these batteries free of charge at the Shire Council’s main office at 33 Highett Street, Mansfield. 

Council will then send them off for recycling with PlanetArk.

You should never put batteries in your household recycling or garbage bin.

There are two ways that residual red lid waste bins can be contaminated.

Firstly, everything that isn't recycling can't just be put into the residual waste bin. Waste like car batteries and other batteries, vehicle fuel and oil, e-waste, gas bottles & butane cans, paint & solvents, hazardous waste household chemicals and building waste should not be put into the residual waste bins. This waste should instead be taken to Council's Resource Recovery Centre on Monkey Gully Road for disposal.

Contamination also means putting recyclable material in the residual waste bin. An audit of residual waste bins in Spring 2021 showed that on average each residual bin collected included 0.25kg of recyclable glass and 0.32kg of recyclable metal. That’s about 15.2% by weight of each residual waste bin that is contamination.

Victoria's new recycling and waste legislation legislation makes putting recyclable material in a residual waste bin illegal.

Currently there is only minimal monitoring of whether households or businesses contaminate their commingled recycling or place hazardous waste in their residual waste bin (car batteries, paint etc). 

Future recycling and waste collection contracts will include detailed monitoring and reporting requirements on the contents of kerbside collections. This includes warning requirements for householders and businesses who do not comply with Victoria Government legislation such as the placement of stickers on offending bins.

As a last resort, Council officers also have the authority to issue a five penalty point fine (currently a $905 fine) for these breaches.

Council's preferred option is, however, to ensure that all users of recycling and waste services clearly understand the requirements of each service, make the correct use of these services as easy as possible and then to support the behaviour changes needed to do this.

A survey completed of four municipalities in eastern Melbourne found that respondents fell broadly into four FOGO (Food Organics Garden Organics) categories based upon their behaviour and attitudes, as shown below. 

https://www.mwrrg.vic.gov.au/assets/resource-files/MWRRG-FOGO-Guide-2021.pdf

What sort of FOGO are you?

This is a trick question. Neither.

A Spring 2021 audit of residual waste bins in Mansfield Shire showed that on average 7% of collected waste was textiles in good condition that should have been donated to a charity.

However, clothing that is ripped, dirty or otherwise unsuitable for resale or cannot be turned into rags is not usable by these charities. In this case please put only these types of textiles into your residual waste bin.

An audit of residual waste bins in Spring 2021 found that about 0.6% of each bin was e-waste, that is illegal to dispose of in landfill. 

This e-waste should’ve been dropped off at the e-waste drop off service at Council's Resource Recovery Centre on Monkey Gully Road.

This service is mostly free, or has a $6 charge, as shown in this table from https://www.mansfield.vic.gov.au/residents/house-and-property/waste/resource-recovery-centre

Yes, old mobile phones can be recycled.

You can drop off your old phones free of charge at the Shire Council’s main office at 33 Highett Street, Mansfield. 

Council will then send them for recycling.

Community members with any questions or concerns can contact the Mansfield Shire Council’s Recycling and Waste Transition Team. 

The contact is:

Kurt Heidecker
Project Officer - Waste and Resource Recovery
03 5775 8555
council@mansfield.vic.gov.au