Food and garden organics community survey

This consultation is currently closed.

As a way of helping our community reduce food waste to landfill, Council will be changing how you can use the garden organics bin service from May 2023.

From 1 May 2023, Maroondah households will be able to place their food scraps in their garden organics bin in addition to their garden materials.

This is not a new service, it’s an add-on to the existing garden organics bin service for garden waste and provides residents with another option to divert food waste from landfill.

Reducing waste to landfill by introducing a food and garden organics service is one of the priority actions of Maroondah’s Waste, Litter and Resource Recovery Strategy 2020-2030 (Outcome area 1, priority action 1.4). Introducing a food and garden organics service in Maroondah will help us in working towards our strategic goal of halving waste to landfill by 2030.

Maroondah has been part of a group procurement with our neighbouring eastern region councils to establish a composting facility which can accept food with the garden waste. The State Government has already led four regional group procurements for composting of household food and garden waste and the eastern region was the last group to go through this process. It takes a few years for these facilities to be established and for them to have the appropriate licensing to accept food waste with the garden waste they might already be processing - hence why Maroondah's start date for a food and garden organics service is May 2023.

Introducing food scraps into the garden organics bin is the biggest change our residents have had to the kerbside service in many years, so we need to spend the time working with our community, so they are educated and prepared on how to use the food and garden organics bin correctly when the new service begins.

Prior to this service change commencing, Council is seeking input and feedback from the Maroondah community to ensure we provide the right information and support so our community can make the change to separating food waste into the new food and garden organics service.

The main objectives of this survey are to:

• Learn more about how Maroondah households currently utilise their garden organics service
• Understand behaviour and attitudes to food waste
• Identify key motivators for recycling food waste and any perceived barriers
• Inform Council’s community education, communication and engagement plans for when the food and garden organics service commences

Join the discussion

We're calling on all Maroondah residents to share your insights which will inform how we develop our education materials, engage with the community about the food and garden organics service, ensuring the community has all the information and tools they need to make the change of separating food waste into the food and garden organics service.

This consultation is currently closed.

For further information

If you would like any further information or to discuss this survey, please call our Waste Management and Education Team Leader on 1300 88 22 33 or 9298 4598, or email waste.education@maroondah.vic.gov.au