Central Coast Council has recently conducted an audit of the community’s waste to help shape the first Waste Management Strategy for the region.

The results will tailor education programs and resource recovery efforts, working towards more than 45 per cent of domestic waste being diverted from our landfill sites each year, a key deliverable of the Community Strategic Plan (CSP).

Council Unit Manager Waste Services and Business Development, Andrew Pearce said the audit has provided some real insight into waste disposal habits of residents.

“The good news is we are generating less waste in all three of our household bins when compared to all previous audits from the past decade, however contamination has increased,” Mr Pearce said.

“Residents have a great understanding of their garden organics bin, with only a 2.5 per cent contamination rate, which was dominated by treated timber.

“There is room for improvement with household recycling, with 13 per cent of unacceptable items placed in yellow-lidded bins – in total one per cent of items placed in the recycling bins were in plastic bags making these items completely unrecoverable.

“What was concerning, was that even though household recycling was relatively good, public place recycling bins contained a massive 46 per cent of unacceptable items, with contaminated paper and single use coffee cups the main culprits.

“Another concerning factor was the number of hazardous items, mainly electrical items and batteries, found in household bins and bulk kerbside collections.

“We have free drop off points for household batteries, mobile phones and light globes at our Wyong and Gosford administration building and library branches.

“We also accept e-waste items free of charge at each of our Waste Management Facilities at Buttonderry (Jilliby), Woy Woy and Kincumber and work with the NSW EPA to host free chemical collections twice a year.”

The next Chemical CleanOut events will be held next year on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 February at Gosford Showground and Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 March at Council’s Long Jetty Depot, 1 Morris Place, corner of The Entrance and Wyong Roads, Bateau Bay.

Residents are encouraged to visit 1coast.com.au to find out what items can be placed in their household bins and bulk kerbside collections, and discover other disposal and recycling options.

The audit further revealed the average household creates a total of 19.8 kilograms of waste each week, 50 per cent of which is diverted from landfill when items are correctly placed in recycling and garden organic household bins.

“We found, on average, each household puts one kilogram of acceptable recyclable materials in the general waste bin each week,” Mr Pearce added.

“If all recyclables were correctly placed in our yellow lidded bins we could work together to increase landfill diversion rates by five per cent, helping us to exceed our target of 45 per cent.

“As part of the Waste Management Strategy we will be investigating innovative mechanisms to achieve further diversion of waste from landfill.”

It is anticipated the draft Waste Management Strategy will be placed on public exhibition for community feedback by April 2019.