Mildura Rural City Council has announced its new Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy to support the reduction of landfill and improve economic and environmental sustainability in the region.
Mildura Council set aspirational targets of zero waste to landfill and zero net emissions from landfill by 2050.
Interim targets of 72 per cent diversion of waste from landfill by 2025 and 80 per cent 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 in June 2022.
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.
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.
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.
“We have already seen the beneficial impacts we can make with new infrastructure and by changing our behaviours.
“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.”
