Let's Get Our Scrap Together Organic Waste Campaign

Published on 24 June 2022

The organic compost produced at the Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre was used yesterday to showcase the launch of an exciting region-wide organics recycling campaign.

The new campaign called ‘Let’s Get Our Scrap Together’ promotes recycling your food scraps in the green organics bin so production of clean and organic compost can continue.

The campaign, developed by the NSW EPA and made possible by a State Government $52,000 grant, will be rolled out across the Northern Rivers via North East Waste.

The campaign helps to educate residents to stop dumping food and organic scraps in the red waste bin and showcases the benefits of fertile rich compost when recycled in the green organics bin.

Lismore City Mayor Steve Krieg said Lismore is still leading the way on recycling organics material, but we can get better.

“Using our compost to open this campaign is only fitting as our Recycling and Recovery Centre was the first facility in Australia to offer the collection of organic kerbside material as part of a weekly waste service,” he said.

“This campaign reminds us all that we can get better at reducing landfill with food waste and make more use of the green organics bin that most residents now have as part of their waste service.”

The launch was at the Red Earth Farmers property in Fernleigh, which uses organic compost produced at our biocycle compost system at the Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre to nourish their soil and grow seasonal certified organic vegetables and flowers.

However, there are still gaps in how much food and organics is recycled.

Just last year, the Northern Rivers diverted more than 42,000 tonnes of food and garden waste from landfill through the kerbside green bin service.

North East Waste Education Coordinator Linda Tohver said progress is being made, but we can do better.

“This is a fantastic, combined effort achieved by our community, however during this period a further 17,000 tonnes of green waste was lost to landfill through the residential red bin, and over 12,000 tonnes of this was food,” she said.

To ensure you’re making every scrap count, Council will use the Let’s Get Our Scrap Together Campaign to help educate our community about the benefits of decreasing the amount of organic waste lost to landfill with tips and educational material on our website and Facebook.

You can also visit www.newaste.org.au/scrap for more educational material and details.