Albury City Council and the Halve Waste initiative win Organics Recycling Industry Excellence Award
Albury City Council was recognised for its considerable achievements in implementing a FOGO service for residents in Albury and neighbouring councils at the NSW Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA) Annual awards ceremony on Friday 10 November.
Winners in the ‘Outstanding Local Government Initiative in Organics Collection/Processing or Marketing’ category the Halve Waste Councils (Albury, Wodonga, Towong, Greater Hume, Federation and Indigo) thoroughly deserved the recognition.
The goal of Halve Waste is to reduce the waste to landfill by 50% by 2020.
In 2015 the Halve Waste Councils committed to delivering a food and garden organics collection service for residents. This has resulted in a 90% take up with 50,000 households from four Shires participating. 22,000 in Albury, 17,000 in Wodonga, 5,000 in Indigo and 5,000 in Federation Council.
The community has really rallied behind the organics service. In fact, the group of Councils has produced the highest quality compost with the lowest levels of contamination in the State. So far, the contamination rate has been less than 1% overall!
Andrea Baldwin (pictured left) manages the Halve Waste Initiative on behalf of the Councils. She was recognised at the awards as the ‘best’ waste manager driving organics collection and recovery.
To date (November 2017) and since its introduction in 2015, the service has generated over 54,000 tonnes of food and garden organics, all of which is being recycled into much needed compost for farms.
Mike Ritchie from MRA Consulting Group accepted the award on behalf of AlburyCity and said “If any council was looking for a model for implementing a food and garden organics collection service and engaging the community – Halve Waste is the answer. The Halve Waste Councils are to be congratulated for their initiative and achievement in halving the waste to landfill in the region.”
The Halve Waste Councils are to be congratulated for their initiative and achievement in halving the waste to landfill in the region.
The award was presented by Annie Kavanagh on behalf of the NSW EPA. The NSW EPA has supported the implementation of FOGO collection through the Waste Less Recycle More funding program.
MRA Consulting Group is assisting in the delivery of the Halve Waste project.
For more information, visit the Halve Waste website halvewaste.com.au or email us at education@halvewaste.com.au.
For further detail on the Halve Waste councils’ successes in best practice waste management and resource diversion, refer to this short video.
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