Dates for the diary

• 12 August — Metropolitan Local Government Waste Forum virtual tour
• 13 August — Nominations close for the Waste Innovation & Recycling Awards 
• 16-22 August — Keep Australia Beautiful Week

Metro news

Forum advisory group elects Chair and new members

Congratulations to City of Yarra’s Coordinator Waste Minimisation and Urban Agriculture, Lisa Coffa on her re-election as the Chair of the Metropolitan Local Government Waste Forum’s Technical Advisory Reference Group (TARG) for 2021-22. Additionally, six new members are joined by five reappointed members to bring their expertise to TARG and provide valuable technical advice on resource recovery issues faced by councils. See the full list of new and returning TARG members.

New resources helping councils manage illegal dumping

Councils in metropolitan Melbourne are embracing resources that we developed to help them implement a consistent and practical approach to reducing kerbside illegal dumping. Six councils are now equipped with the social marketing collateral, released in February 2021 as part of our Illegal dumping prevention kit, with a further seven councils considering using the collateral in 2021-22. 

So far, we’ve helped councils to print 15,000 metres of illegal dumping barrier tape—enough to lap the MCG 32 times—along with 8,500 illegal dumping notice postcards and 1,000 illegal dumping notice stickers. Our support has enabled councils to translate the collateral into Somali, Cantonese and Mandarin to ensure it is accessible for their diverse communities. Find out more about the kit, and how to access the collateral here.

Commercial and industrial food waste presents significant opportunity

With an increase in avoidance and/or recycling, 97% more commercial and industrial food waste could be diverted from landfill each year, our CEO Jill Riseley told the Australian Organics Recycling Association 2021 Annual Conference last month. Jill presented our recent work on commercial and industrial food waste, highlighting it as a significant opportunity to help meet the objectives of Recycling Victoria: a new economy—which aims to halve the amount of food and green waste sent to landfill by 2030. Watch Jill's speech. 

Celebrating the contribution of women in waste

MWRRG is proud to be an organisation where women are strongly represented across staff and board—but we know more needs to be done to encourage women into the sector and celebrate their achievements. That’s why we’re sponsoring the Women of Waste Award at this year’s Waste Innovation & Recycling Awards. The award will help us to celebrate the contributions of women to reduce waste and increase resource recovery. Their ideas and innovation will be critical to ensuring Victoria transforms its waste and recycling sector as we shift towards a more circular economy in line with Recycling Victoria: a new economy. Find out more about the Waste Innovation & Recycling Awards. Nominations close 13 August 2021. 

Upskilling councils to effectively plan for waste and recycling in MUDs

Waste management planning is critical to the good design of apartments, townhouses and other multi-unit developments (MUDs), participants at our recent training heard. It is especially important given the increasing number of MUDs being built, the introduction of additional recycling services, and the need to provide hard waste disposal to prevent illegal dumping. Our training, delivered in partnership with the Planning Institute of Australia was attended by 27 participants, including a mix of planners and waste officers from 11 councils as well as state government and consultancy. Download resources and find out more about waste and resource recovery in MUDs.  

Portfolio news

Recycling Victoria Councils and Communities Fund grant recipients announced

Congratulations to all Recycling Victoria Councils and Communities Fund Round 1 grant recipients. These valuable projects will help Victoria reduce waste to landfill and transition to a circular economy. We played a key role by lending expert advice to councils and community groups to help shape their applications. All 10 of the councils and 10 of the community groups we worked with were successful in gaining a grant. We’re looking forward to seeing their projects take shape and make a difference to the local community. See the full list of Round 1 council and community grant recipients.

Getting Victoria ready for the new four bin recycling system

The Victorian Government is one step closer to a comprehensive four bin recycling system, with $127 million available to support all 79 Victorian councils to buy new bins, improve drop-off facilities, deliver education campaigns and ensure that they have the infrastructure in place to roll out these reforms. Read more about the funding announcement.

Environment protection subordinate legislation now available

Victoria’s new environment protection laws have now commenced, and the new subordinate legislation is now available. Subordinate legislation is the group of tools that support the amended Environment Protection Act 2017. These tools include Environment Protection Regulations to support the Act and the Environment Reference Standard. Find out more about the subordinate legislation.

Entries now open for the Premier’s Sustainability Awards 2021

There is still time to enter this year's Premier's Sustainability Awards. The annual awards program celebrates innovators contributing to our state’s focus on sustainability, and those leading the charge towards net zero emissions. Entries close at 5pm on 30 July 2021. To be inspired by past award winners, visit the Sustainability Victoria website, and for information on how to apply for one of this year’s categories. 

Be informed

• The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation—in collaboration with the Australian Organics Recycling Association and the Australasian Bioplastics Association—has launched a new strategy for compostable packaging. The National Compostable Packaging Strategy provides a clear and consistent national approach for compostable packaging in Australia, including direction on how and where it should be used, how it can support the recovery of food waste, and how to ensure compostable packaging is recovered. 

Waste warriors

Council spotlight

Events and professional development

Forum virtual tour: BinDance Film Festival — 12 August 2021

The next Metropolitan Local Government Waste Forum (Forum) event will be a virtual resource recovery industry tour featuring videos and presentations about kerbside collections, sorting and processing of recovered waste materials. Titled the BinDance Film Festival, this free event is online from 9.30am to 12pm on Thursday, 12 August. Councillors and council officers who are not Forum members are also welcome to attend the tour. The virtual tour will finish at approximately 11:30am and be followed by a brief Forum meeting for members only. Please contact metro.forum@mwrrg.vic.gov.au to request an invitation to register. 

Weird and wonderful waste news

Resource of the month

Food waste recycling videos for councils

Want to promote your food waste recycling service on social media? We have two videos—optimised for YouTube, Instagram and Facebook/Instagram stories—that councils can use for free to promote their services to residents. The first video highlights the different types of waste that can be recycled in household green bins. The second shows what residents can use to line their kitchen caddies with before collecting food waste.

The videos can be used to encourage residents to ‘put their food waste to good use’. There are also 15 still images from the videos for councils to use in print collateral and on social, web and digital publications. If you have any questions about the videos or would like to use them, contact Communications Manager Joshua Rule at Joshua.rule@mwrrg.vic.gov.au.

The Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Implementation Plan sets out four strategic objectives which underpin all of MWRRG’s activities:

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