Media Response - Council's Weekly Organics Program

Published on 10 September 2025

Response to The Advertiser

The journalist asked for responses to the following questions with all comments attributed to Matthew Spearman, Acting Chief Executive Officer:

1. Results from the current trial found five percent of households upsized their bins - what were the main reasons? ie, households with babies to dispose of nappies?

For the 1,336 households that commenced Council’s Weekly Organics program in September 2024, around 7 per cent have now elected to ‘upsize’ their red lidded (waste-to-landfill) bins. The main reasons households upsized their red (waste-to-landfill) bins was to manage disposal of nappies and to accommodate large households.

2. What size bin were residents able to receive if they upsized?

The upsized red (waste to landfill) bin size is 240 litres, the same size currently provided for the yellow (recycling) and green (organics) lidded bins throughout the city. Households that elect to upsize are provide with the 240-litre bins so that they have greater capacity for waste on the fortnightly collection program. Typical waste-to-landfill bins are 140-litres.

3. The below document from January mentions the trial extension in 2025/26 - are the figures on this correct? Ie, an additional 2944 households and 94 businesses to be included in the expanded trial? https://burnside.civicclerk.com.au/web/UserControls/pdf/web/DocPDFWrapper.aspx?ar=1309&token=ead4b6f8-4027-4ddc-a1f9-3eca6ea05d4d

Based on the success of the initial 2024/25 trial, an expansion of the project was approved in the 2025/26 Annual Business Plan and Budget to include an additional 2,944 households and 94 businesses bringing the total to 4,473 properties involved in the trial. This represents around 22 per cent of the properties serviced by Council’s waste provider, East Waste, in the City of Burnside.

4. Was the council successful in receiving a Green Industries grant for the expansion? (document details if grant successful, it'll cost the council $85,882 to run).

Council was unsuccessful in securing this grant. The cost to deliver the trial expansion has been budgeted for in the 2025/26 Annual Business Plan and Budget. Based on trial data, if the program was conducted for the entire Council area, Council could realise savings of around $175,000 per annum, providing a return-on-investment in less than four years.

5. How long is the trial?

The expanded trial area commenced from 8 September 2025 and is currently funded for 10 months. The service is expected to continue beyond the trial and expand to other areas depending upon results of the program and future council budgets.

6. Would the Mayor like to comment on the success of the past 12 months of the trial and what considerations the council will give before implementing the trail council-wide.

‘During 2024 Council commenced a trial of a Weekly Organics service to encourage households to divert waste from landfill, with organics bins collected weekly while landfill bins are collected fortnightly.’

‘This trial has been so successful that we have expanded it so that 22 per cent of the properties in our city that receive waste collection from East Waste can take part.’

‘The trial area has an improved landfill diversion rate to as much as 76 per cent (the pre-trial average for Burnside was 61 per cent); and the trial is exceeding the State Government target of 70 per cent waste diversion from landfill.’

‘It’s around five-times cheaper to commercially compost food waste, rather than sending it to landfill, saving the cost of waste disposal and taking the pressure off rates, which is good news for our residents feeling cost of living pressures.’

‘There are environmental benefits too as composting food produces far less methane than sending it to landfill, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Plus, we are creating valuable compost to reuse the food waste.’

‘During the early stages of the trial, Council saved over $900/week on landfill costs. While there are upfront costs to provide this service, there will be a return on this investment to provide financial savings to Council.’

‘The future extension or expansion of the trial will be subject to community support through future Business Plan and Budgets.’