Loddon Mallee regional organics strategy 2019 to 2025
Rawtec worked on this strategy for the Loddon Mallee Waste and Resource Recovery Group. February 2019.
Summary published
The Loddon Mallee region in Victoria generates more than 2.2 million tonnes of organic material a year, almost all of it from agriculture and horticulture. The strategy’s stated aim is zero organics to landfill by 2025.
Eight councils, starting from eight different places, with the nearest processing facilities up to 475 kilometres away from the western end of the region.
Organic material generated in the region each year
Of the household waste bin is organics
Garden and food diversion targets for 2023
Furthest distance from a council to a processing facility
What the strategy targets
The volumes are agricultural, the problem is domestic
Of more than 2.2 million tonnes of organics a year, 2.1 million comes from agriculture and horticulture. Separately, 17,000 tonnes a year from the commercial and industrial sector goes to landfill. Organics makes up 40 to 50% of the household waste bin across most councils, and over half of that is food.
Household targets, with dates
Business targets too
25% of food businesses in the region to have taken part in a food waste reduction programme by 2023. 20% donating surplus food to a food relief charity by 2025. Every town or city over 10,000 people to have a commercial organics recycling service available by 2025, with the service promoted to 80% of food service, retail and manufacturing businesses.
Infrastructure is the constraint
At least one facility receiving kerbside food and garden organics operating by 2022, and at least 50% of recycled organics product sold within 200 kilometres of where it was processed. The existing facilities sit 70 to 120 kilometres from Bendigo, and the western councils are up to 475 kilometres from one.
What the numbers look like from the household side
The strategy cites $20 billion of food wasted or lost in Australia each year, and an average Victorian household spending over $2,000 on food that goes uneaten.
Evidence that the interventions work
Cafes and restaurants in the Your Business is Food programme cut food waste by 21% on average. Massachusetts’ landfill ban took organics diversion from 100,000 to 260,000 tons a year within four years. San Francisco saw a 50% increase in organics diverted within months of mandatory sorting. A City of Melville pilot across nearly 7,000 households had 79% of residents wanting the service to continue.
The five objectives
Love Food Hate Waste campaign promotion, best-practice business programmes, food rescue support, and market development for surplus food and imperfect produce.
Procure FOGO kerbside collection, pilot compostable bags, run community education, trial weekly FOGO, use price signals, and pursue state funding.
Encourage commercial collection, look at onsite processing, run programmes for public institutions, share legislative information, and partner with agriculture.
Establish new facilities, develop higher-value products, and support energy-from-organics opportunities.
Council procurement requirements, farmer education, and household incentives. A compost market has to exist before compost capacity is worth building.
The strategy is explicit that a single model will not suit all eight councils: collection density, community expectations, financial resources and existing infrastructure all differ, and the councils are at different starting points. Barriers to organics product uptake include transport distance, product life, biosecurity, cost and perceptions of quality.
Related reports
Other regional strategy work.
The full strategy includes the action plan against each objective.
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