Organic materials are anything that is living or derived from living material. Garden organics include anything that grows in the garden.

As part of your Domestic Waste Service, a third bin with a lime green lid has been introduced specifically for the collection of garden organics. The garden organics service is simply the next step in reducing our waste to landfill. There will be no change to the size of your garbage or recycling bins.

If you live in the Cessnock City, Maitland City, or Singleton Local Government area and receive a domestic garbage collection service you are eligible for a garden organics bin. If you have not received your lime green lid bin contact 1800 270 250 to organise delivery. All bins are registered to an address and come with an address sticker near the serial number on the side of the bin.

If it grows in your garden it can go in your garden organics bin – including:

• Grass Clippings
• Prunings
• Weeds
• Leaves
• Flowers
• Plants
• Palm Fronds
• Bark
• Sticks & Small
• Branches (max. length 30 cm, diameter 30 cm)
• Roots
• Untreated Timber

No, at this time only garden organics are accepted. If you have a veggie patch in your garden and have cleared it out for replanting, this organic material will be accepted. The introduction of food into the service is several years away from delivery as it requires more complex processing and infrastructure than currently in place.

Yes – you can put all weeds in your new bin. They will no longer be viable after the 6 month pasteurising process.

No. Your garbage bin remains the same. Your local Council is working to replace all the lids on garbage bins to the standard red-lid in order to reduce any confusion caused by having two bins with green lids.

You can order an additional garden organics bin by contacting your local Council. Fees apply.

If unaccepted items are found in your Garden Organics bin, it may not be emptied until you have removed them.

If your bin is missed, damaged or stolen, you can report it here or call the Customer Service department at your local Council.

If your bin is stolen, you will need to report it to the Police Assistance Line on 131 444 to receive a Police Event Number and then report it here or by calling 1800 270 250 and quote your Police Event Number to organise a replacement bin.

All material collected from your garden organics bin is delivered by the collection vehicle to a purpose built transfer facility. Here it is loaded onto a large truck for transport to ANLs composting facility in Tea Gardens where it is processed into mulch and compost that can be used on parks, gardens, sporting fields, and agricultural crops.

You can purchase compost and mulch products from ANL online or find your nearest stockist here.

If you are already composting at home, keep up the good work! Consider the new garden organics bin an extra tool for any excess material that you have like garden organic materials that are notoriously difficult to compost such as palm fronds, weeds and larger sticks/branches.

Quite simply, we need to reduce the amount of waste we are sending to landfill. Our landfills are important assets that need conserving to ensure its viability for future generations.

On average, household garbage bins in our region are comprised of around 24% garden organics, which in 2015-16 equated to an estimated 13,000 tonnes of garden organics disposed to our landfills.

The more organic material that we put into landfill, the more methane gas we produce. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas: the impact of methane on climate change is more than 25 times greater than the impact of carbon dioxide. The more we separate our waste at home, the more resources can be recovered for recycling, leading to economic as well as environmental benefits.

The cost of the service is included as part of your annual Domestic Waste Management Charge that is paid with your rates. There may be small increases in this charge in order to cover the cost of providing the garden organics service. The Councils working together to provide the service received grant funding from the NSW EPA for purchase of the bins and assist with the system set up costs so costs to ratepayers have been minimised.

Your Councils’ Domestic Waste Management service consists of 3 bins – General Waste (red lid), Recycling (yellow lid) and Garden Organics (lime green lid). It is your decision whether you use the service or not or how frequently. There is no change to the Domestic Waste Management Charge on your rates if you choose to surrender your bin as the cost of waste services is minimised by spreading it across all residential properties.

By working together to the three Councils received grant funding from the NSW EPA to purchase the bins and set up the service. In a few years’ time, food waste will also be included in the garden organics bin and so it was more efficient to roll out the bins to all households at the start.

Because we are part of a community, every resident shares the cost of services, even if they use some services more than others, or don’t use some services at all.

With this new service:

• The Councils working together have received grant funding from the NSW EPA to purchase all the new bins (so there is no charge to residents).
• Any increased costs for the provision of this service are also minimised by the savings achieved by diverting the garden organics material from landfill and therefore avoiding NSW Government waste levy charges (applied to waste to landfill).

• It is the most cost-effective way to reduce waste to landfill.
• It increases the lifespan of our local landfills.
• It is a convenient way for you to deal with your grass clippings and other garden organics.
• The mulch and compost produced from the collected garden organics can be used on parks, home gardens, sporting grounds, and in agriculture.
• It allows for the opportunity for the service to be expanded (such as to include food) and make even greater savings.
• It makes our community more environmentally sustainable.