Port Macquarie-Hastings Council is demonstrating innovative approaches to organics collection and sustainability in council fleet. From July 2006 Council is offering an Australia-first compostable cornstarch bag and kitchen tidy bin system to residents that will complement the establishment of an extended weekly organics kerbside collection service. Further to this, Council has recently conducted a holistic Fleet Sustainability Study that investigates the various options that are available to make council fleet more sustainable.

These bags can be placed full of organic kitchen waste into the green organics bin, to be composted with garden waste, other green waste and biosolids at the ORRF. Residents can also wrap food-waste in newspaper to place in their green organics bin. This initiative is designed to make residents more comfortable with putting food waste in the kerbside bin for collection, especially to reduce the chance of smells.

Since the start of July 2006 residents have been able to register for a kitchen tidy and one year's supply of bags. There has been a positive response with over 550 residents signing on after one media release. This number is expected to increase dramatically over the coming months as there is further promotion of the system. For the 05/06 financial year, using the previous system of a fortnightly 240 litre MGB collection, over 7800 tonnes of organic material was collected from residential kerbsides alone.

The Trial Appendices and Report are available to download. For more information contact Nicole Julian, Port Macquarie-Hastings Council Waste Strategies Education Officer, Ph: +61 2 6581 8577 or visit the council website.

The Port Macquarie-Hastings Fleet Sustainability Study – Options Analysis comprehensively investigates the variety of opportunities available for Council vehicle fleet. CO2e emissions and total costs were analysed for options that ranged from most to least change to the existing fleet structure. The need for improvement in the efficiency of the fleet was identified in Council's Greenhouse Action Strategy (CCP Action Plan).

The various options incorporate different combinations of vehicle size, alternative fuel usage and energy efficient vehicles. The study also considers the use of driver training programs and a travel behaviour change program. The use of sequestration as an option for off-setting vehicle fleet emissions is also investigated. The ‘most change’ option is that which would incorporate the largest alteration to the existing fleet structure but provides the greatest reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Fleet Sustainability Study showed that by implementing the ‘most change’ option to the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council vehicle fleet:

• CO2e emissions would be 745 tonnes per year less than under the ‘least change’ option.
• Annual fuel costs would be $236,193 less than under the ‘least change’ option.

There are a number of other related documents that are available for your information:

• Port Macquarie-Hastings Fleet Sustainability Study [PDF, 348KB]
• Fleet Sustainability Study – Consultancy Brief [PDF, 488KB]
• Recommended Implementation Process [PDF, 52KB]

For more information contact Matt Rogers, Port Macquarie-Hastings Council Natural Resource Manager, Ph: +61 2 6581 8635 or visit the council website.