Waste Industry Excellence Award in New South Wales, Australia : Organics Recycling Award for Albury City Council and the Halve Waste Initiative

The NSW Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA) Annual awards have recognised Albury City Council for its considerable achievements in implementing a FOGO service for residents in Albury and neighbouring councils.

Winners in the ‘Outstanding Local Government Initiative in Organics Collection/Processing or Marketing’ category included the Halve Waste Councils (Albury, Wodonga, Towong, Greater Hume, Federation and Indigo) for their Halve Waste Initiative intended to reduce waste to sent 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 participating in Albury, 17,000 in Wodonga, 5,000 in Indigo and 5,000 in Federation Council areas.

Mike Ritchie, of director at MRA Consulting Group which is assisting in the delivery of the Halve Waste project accepted the award on behalf of AlburyCity

“If any council was looking for a model for implementing a food and garden organics collection service and engaging the community – HalveWaste 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,” he said.

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 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.

This year the service generated over 45,000 tonnes of food and garden organics, all of which is being recycled into much needed compost for farms.

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.

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