The draft Strategy serves as a 10-year roadmap for the future direction of Councils waste services.

It includes details on:

• Key issues facing Council and the waste industry

• Community access to safe and efficient waste services

• Community education for effective service use

• Minimising waste to landfill and other impacts on our environment

A lot has changed in the waste industry at an international, national and state level since Council’s current Strategy was developed in 2017.

International markets have enforced stricter standards and banned imports of specific materials. This has impacted the global recycling market and made processing recycling more expensive for Australia.

The National Waste Policy emphasises waste as a resource and has shifted towards a circular economy approach. This means focusing on keeping resources 'in the loop' for as long as possible by continually reusing, repairing, recycling and/or reprocessing materials.
The Victorian Government’s Recycling Victoria Policy mandates changes to household waste services, for all Victorian councils. This includes:

• Standardisation of bin lid colours to align with national standards

• Introduction of a four-steam household system, including

• a general rubbish (red lid) bin

• a mixed recycling (yellow lid) bin

• introduction of an additional service for glass only (purple lid)

• a universal food and garden waste (lime green lid) bin

• Introduction of the Container Deposit Scheme

This policy is supported by the Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act 2021.

Whether you’re visiting friends & family, travelling or re-locating, which bin your waste and recycling should go in will be the same. This consistency across Victoria, will make is easier for everyone to sort their household waste. This will mean improved recycling, less bin contamination, more efficient services and better outcomes for our environment.

The proposed service standards for the Victorian Government’s Recycling Victoria Policy states that councils have to provide a glass only service by July 2027.

The glass only (purple lid) service will be for glass bottles and jars. Once the service starts in Cardinia Shire, these items won’t be allowed in any of your other household bins.

The Victorian Government proposed a glass-only service in response to the recycling industry’s concerns about glass contamination in other recyclables, particularly paper and cardboard.

Therefore, a separate glass service makes it easier to recover and recycle these materials.

Cardinia Shire Council, along with 31 other Victorian Councils, are advocating for the Victorian Government to delay the implementation date of the glass only service; to allow more time for all options to be considered, so the best approach can be determined regarding resource recovery and best value services for our community.

However, planning for the current 1 July 2027 deadline is still necessary. This ensures Council avoids any compliance and enforcement penalties as per the draft regulations, under the Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act 2021.

The waste charge, paid by ratepayers, is reviewed every year and recovers the cost of the annual waste services. Changes to waste services will have a direct impact on the waste charge paid by ratepayers.

The landfill levy, which is set by the Victorian Government and charges per tonne of waste sent to landfill, is set to increase again from July 2025, regardless of any changes to our waste service.

This means the more we can divert from landfill, the lower the cost will be. For example, it costs more to send food waste to landfill than it does to turn it into compost via the food and garden waste bin.

With the introduction of the Victorian Government’s Recycling Victoria policy, there is also likely to be an increase in the waste charge to cover the costs of the new glass recycling collection. Council continues to express our concerns regarding the cost of this service to the Victorian Government.

The extent of the increase will depend on a range of factors including frequency of bin collection, the volumes of waste generated by the community, Victorian Government funding, future ‘gate fees’ for each stream and community feedback from this consultation.

Recycling bin (yellow lid)

Once your recycling is collected, it’s transported to Re.Group’s Material Recycling Facility in Dandenong. Non-recyclable items are detected and removed. The remaining items are separated into plastic, glass, aluminium, paper and cardboard and sold for further processing before becoming new products.

Food and garden waste bin (lime-green lid)

Your food and garden waste bin is collected and transported to Veolia Dandenong. The material is sorted, and contamination removed. The eligible material is then shredded and processed through in-vessel composting and open windrows. The controlled conditions allow material to decompose efficiently, becoming compost and soil improver.

Rubbish bin (red lid)

Your rubbish bin is collected and transported to Cleanaway’s Southeast Melbourne Transfer Station Dandenong. From here, it is transported in large long-haul vehicles to the Melbourne Regional Landfill (Cleanaway) in Ravenhall, where it is buried in the ground in landfill cells. We try to reduce waste where possible before it gets landfilled. With landfills in south-east Melbourne filling up and no future landfills planned to be built, Council’s working with 8 other councils across Victoria to find long term, sustainable solutions to manage non-recoverable waste.

Council has a litter prevention team that manages dumped rubbish on Council land. This includes:

• Investigating cases and working with authorities to hold offenders responsible

• Educating and empowering the community to correctly dispose of their household items

• Clean up and removal of litter and dumped rubbish

• Directing community members to other organisations that are responsible for other land in Cardinia Shire

Council understands tip fees are a barrier for people correctly disposing their waste. Our local tips and transfer stations are privately owned and therefore, Council does not set tip fees.

However, where we can, Council continues to work with privately owned transfer stations in our area to support the community with free drop-off events, as well as free and additional low-cost kerbside hardwaste collections.