Resource Recovery (Organics, Recycling and Waste) Strategy and Action Plan 2020-2028

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Consultation has concluded

Thank you for your valuable feedback!


Update - December 2020

During the recent consultation for the draft Resource Recovery (Organics, Recycling and Waste) Strategy and Action Plan 2020-2028 (Strategy and Action Plan) we were delighted to receive an impressive 82 submissions from our community and stakeholders.

Your contribution has helped us to better understand your concerns and priority areas with regards to recycling and waste management in our city. The overall feedback indicated strong support for the directions proposed in the draft Strategy and Action Plan with over 80% of respondents ‘strongly agreeing’ or ‘agreeing’ with every goal, Priority Area and Target Area. Many of those who ‘disagreed’ believed that the ambition was too low or expressed opposition to the CoA ‘policing rubbish’.

The following main themes were mentioned by respondents across all questions:

  • The desire for more waste and recycling education.
  • Awareness of and the desire to recover more resources, like organics from landfill from all businesses and residences in the city.
  • The suitability of the current City of Adelaide waste services (size of bins, amenity/access, collection of materials, and the effectiveness and practicality of bulk bin systems in multi-unit dwellings) was raised.
  • The desire to have support and convenient options to divert more materials from landfill which cannot be placed in the yellow or green bins (like soft plastics) was communicated.
  • Improved recycling and organics collection options in public places was considered important to support behaviour change and reputation.
  • The frequency of collection of different bin types was raised.
  • Enforcement was raised as a tool to improve recycling outcomes and the correct use of bin.

The full report can be viewed by clicking here.

This information was used to amend and finalise the Strategy and Action Plan which was adopted by Council on 10 November 2020.

We will now work to implement the Strategy and Action Plan which can be accessed through our website by clicking here.

Once again, we thank you for your invaluable contribution in helping our wonderful city to not only to manage our waste well but also recover more valuable resources!


View related documentsBrowse frequently asked questionsContact staff


Thank you for your valuable feedback!


Update - December 2020

During the recent consultation for the draft Resource Recovery (Organics, Recycling and Waste) Strategy and Action Plan 2020-2028 (Strategy and Action Plan) we were delighted to receive an impressive 82 submissions from our community and stakeholders.

Your contribution has helped us to better understand your concerns and priority areas with regards to recycling and waste management in our city. The overall feedback indicated strong support for the directions proposed in the draft Strategy and Action Plan with over 80% of respondents ‘strongly agreeing’ or ‘agreeing’ with every goal, Priority Area and Target Area. Many of those who ‘disagreed’ believed that the ambition was too low or expressed opposition to the CoA ‘policing rubbish’.

The following main themes were mentioned by respondents across all questions:

  • The desire for more waste and recycling education.
  • Awareness of and the desire to recover more resources, like organics from landfill from all businesses and residences in the city.
  • The suitability of the current City of Adelaide waste services (size of bins, amenity/access, collection of materials, and the effectiveness and practicality of bulk bin systems in multi-unit dwellings) was raised.
  • The desire to have support and convenient options to divert more materials from landfill which cannot be placed in the yellow or green bins (like soft plastics) was communicated.
  • Improved recycling and organics collection options in public places was considered important to support behaviour change and reputation.
  • The frequency of collection of different bin types was raised.
  • Enforcement was raised as a tool to improve recycling outcomes and the correct use of bin.

The full report can be viewed by clicking here.

This information was used to amend and finalise the Strategy and Action Plan which was adopted by Council on 10 November 2020.

We will now work to implement the Strategy and Action Plan which can be accessed through our website by clicking here.

Once again, we thank you for your invaluable contribution in helping our wonderful city to not only to manage our waste well but also recover more valuable resources!


View related documentsBrowse frequently asked questionsContact staff


Consultation has concluded

  • Project Information & Background

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    Project Information

    Waste is something that we all interact with. Whether we are out at the shops, in our streets, at our favourite café, at work or at home, waste is something that needs to be managed.

    Council provides a range of waste and recycling services to keep the city of Adelaide streets and communities clean and safe.

    Council has developed a new resource recovery and waste strategy to support our community in reducing waste, recovering more resources and helping to reach our goal of becoming the first zero-waste city in Australia.

    We sought feedback from our community in September-October 2020 to ensure that we did not miss anything and that our services and programs meet our community’s expectations.

    Click here to view a video from Sandy Verschoor, The Lord Mayor of Adelaide, for further information.


    Background

    Council provides several waste and recycling services. Residents and some eligible businesses are provided with a regular kerbside collection. Multi-unit dwellings can use a contractor, the Council kerbside collection or if eligible, can be provided with Council bulk bins that are shared by the residents. Waste and recycling bins are placed in public spaces for the convenience of users and to ensure our beautiful city remains clean and safe.

    A comprehensive waste audit was conducted on City of Adelaide’s waste services in August 2019 so that we could better understand how we are doing and develop programs to better support our community. Further details about our service offering and our audit results can be found by clicking here to view Attachment A.

  • Strategy Overview

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    Strategy Overview:

    The draft Resource Recovery (Organics, Recycling and Waste) Strategy and Action Plan 2020-2028 proposes to fulfill the Council-endorsed motion of becoming ‘a zero waste City by 2030 and sets the goal of becoming the first zero waste city in Australia’.

    This is proposed to be achieved by recycling and composting more, reducing the amount of waste we produce, reducing the amount of waste materials that should not go in the recycling or compost streams and diverting food waste from the red waste bin and into the compost bin. The City of Adelaide’s ‘Zero-Waste Key Performance Indicators’ (KPIs) are:

    • Divert 75 per cent of residential waste from landfill;
    • Divert 90 per cent of waste from City of Adelaide activities and events from landfill;
    • Reduce waste generation by 5 per cent per capita;
    • Reduce contamination to below 10 per cent in yellow comingled recycling;
    • Reduce food waste in the kerbside residential waste bin by 50 per cent.


    We plan on achieving this through 5 Priority Items including:

    1. Strive to eliminate food waste and keep food scraps out of landfill.
    2. Provide waste and recycling education for all residents, businesses, and users of our city.
    3. Foster innovation, new technologies, and data collection so that we can make long-lasting improvements.
    4. Consider the impacts of waste in all the decision-making at Council, including development applications, building plans, product choices, manufacturing, and waste systems design.
    5. Advocate for circular economy practices, and align our own policies towards this long-term change.

    The ‘Priority Items’ listed above will target a range of target stakeholders to ensure that programs and systems implemented are tailored to these users.


    Our proposed ‘Target Areas’ include:

    Target Area 1: Residents & the Community
    Support residents and the community using the residential kerbside collection to achieve zero-waste at home.

    What are we considering?

    • Making it easier to divert food waste from the landfill;
    • Providing an extensive and multi-lingual education program to help reduce waste and recycle more, including information about waste management best practices specially for apartments and building managers;
    • Improving our data collection, and communicating the cost of waste;
    • Improving waste management in new developments in both the building and occupancy phases;
    • Supporting communities and event organisers with more tools and resources for waste-free events.
    Target Area 2: Residents in Multi-Unit Dwellings
    Tailor supportive services to residential multi-unit dwellings (including apartments, low-rises, high rises) in development through to occupancy.
    Target Area 3: Businesses
    Expand support for businesses eligible for kerbside collection.

    What are we considering?

    • Investigating the provision of green organics collection service to City of Adelaide serviced businesses;
    • Developing information tailored for businesses and business owners and staff;
    • Encouraging waste reduction and resource sharing to support a circular economy;
    • Establishing robust resource management plans as part of business-as-usual.
    Target Area 4: Public Spaces
    Establish public space like streets and Park Lands as conduits for resource recovery.

    What are we considering?

    • Investigating improving resource recovery in public places;
    • Ensuring that the systems we do implement make it easy for people to divert materials from landfill;
    • Investigating technological innovation that can help us capture more resources;
    • Considering the long-term waste effect from our decisions when designing new infrastructure like street upgrades, or street furniture.
    Target Area 5: City of Adelaide Operations
    Establish the City of Adelaide’s operations, businesses, facilities and events as visible leaders in exceptional waste avoidance and management.

    What are we considering?

    • Mandating diversion of food waste and supporting tenants and staff to do this;
    • Making resource recovery part of the workplace culture in all buildings, and leased facilities and establishing resource recovery ambassadors to help drive this;
    • Collecting more detailed data about waste generation and resource recovery so we can see how we are doing over time;
    • Reviewing how we are doing every year, and allocating funding to support our KPI’s;
    • Driving programs and initiatives that position the City of Adelaide as a leader in resource recovery;
    • Advocating for improvement in relevant policy and legislation to support reducing waste, recycling more and developing a circular economy.


    See also the proposed strategy matrix in Attachment B.

    You may also wish to read the full Draft Resource Recovery Strategy (Organics, Recycling and Waste) 2020-2028 by clicking here and the Draft Resource Recovery Action Plan (Organics, Recycling and Waste) 2020-2028 by clicking here.