{"id":7151,"date":"2026-05-08T03:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/7151\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T03:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:03:09","slug":"rising-waste-costs-prompt-rethink-of-rubbish-collection-around-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/7151\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising waste costs prompt rethink of rubbish collection around Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A waste expert says Australian households are the “piggy in the middle” of a global “cheap” plastics industry and a local push to reduce the country’s waste.<\/p>\n

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Australia produced about 13 million tonnes of household waste in the 2022-23 financial year.<\/p>\n

Much of that household waste is collected by local councils, which pay contractors to collect bins and pay to establish, fill and cap landfill.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Adelaide University’s Robert Crocker says people are taking on more responsibility with waste. (Supplied: Adelaide University)<\/p>\n

Adelaide University waste expert Robert Crocker said as costs rose for councils, diverting waste away from landfill was one way to manage budgets and meet environmental targets.<\/p>\n

But Dr Crocker said it meant more responsibility was being placed on households.<\/p>\n

“What people are beginning to find is that the waste problem is so great that there’s a pushback from the waste managers saying, ‘We can’t deal with this anymore, you’ve got to make a few changes,'” Dr Crocker said.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately the household is in the middle.<\/p>\n

“They’re like the piggy in the middle between the producers who often just don’t care, they just want to sell stuff, and the waste manager that has to actually deal with the outcome.”Councils watching costs<\/p>\n

While waste collection programs differ by state and council, many run a system where a general waste bin is collected weekly, while a recycling bin and green organic waste bin alternate each week.<\/p>\n

But as local governments look to divert waste from landfill, some are making changes to encourage more recycling and composting.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Organic bins, known as green or FOGO (food organics and garden organics) bins, have become the focus of new waste management services in South Australia. (ABC South West WA: Jacqueline Lynch)<\/p>\n

In South Australia, some councils are running trials of organic bins being collected weekly, with general waste bins moving to fortnightly pick-ups.<\/p>\n

Local Government Association of South Australia president Heather Holmes-Ross said it costs council’s far more to dump waste in landfill.<\/p>\n

“Councils want to get as much kitchen waste out of the landfill bins and into the green bin,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The issue is then if your green bin is being emptied fortnightly and your landfill bin weekly, you’ve got this green organic waste building up for two weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Heather Holmes-Ross says trials of alternative waste collection in the state have been positive so far. (Supplied: Local Government Association of South Australia)<\/p>\n

“That’s when things becoming problematic.”<\/p>\n

Currently, SA legislation mandates councils offer weekly general waste pick-up, but Dr Holmes-Ross said the sector wanted it to be amended to allow weekly organics bin pick-up.<\/p>\n

“Once people are educated about it, they like the idea of helping and being environmentally friendly,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They also like that it will cost their council less and that should be reflected in their rates notices.”Smelly bin concerns<\/p>\n

The City of Mount Gambier, in South Australia’s South East, has voted to commence weekly organic bin pick-ups from mid-2028.<\/p>\n

An internal report showed it cost the council about $3.6 million to establish a landfill cell and about $1.2 million to cap it once full.<\/p>\n

It also cited an internal audit that found more than 60 per cent of the contents of general waste bins could either be recycled or placed in organic bins.<\/p>\n

\"council<\/p>\n

Most SA councils offer three bins: general waste, green organics and recycling. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The move caused a stir in the local community though, with residents worried it will lead to smelly waste piling up across a fortnight, as well as representing a reduction in council services.<\/p>\n

Mount Gambier and District Ratepayers Association president Frank Wilcox said the decision failed to consider large families.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of people in this city, not only businesses, but also people with flats and that sort of thing, who don’t have any green areas, that really don’t have any green waste,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mount Gambier is South Australia’s largest regional city. (ABC South East SA: Bec Whetham)<\/p>\n

“So they would need regular pick-ups on a weekly basis, you would think, plus also young families with children with things like dirty nappies and that sort of thing,<\/p>\n

“All the extra waste you get from having children, they need a general pick-up every week.”<\/p>\n

A ‘wasteful’ system<\/p>\n

Professor Crocker said local governments looking at alternative ways to deal with household waste was a positive.<\/p>\n

But he said all stakeholders needed to be more aware of how we generate, separate and dispose of waste to create lasting change.<\/p>\n

“From a household point of view, there’s almost nothing the individual can do except try to do the best they can,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And that means being aware that the larger system is ridiculously wasteful.<\/p>\n

“You can’t blame individuals, you can’t blame the government, you have to actually see it as a by-product of our economic system.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A waste expert says Australian households are the “piggy in the middle” of a global “cheap” plastics industry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,8523,8525,8524,5475,8526],"class_list":["post-7151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bins","tag-local-councils","tag-recycling","tag-rubbish","tag-waste-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}