Mildura Rural City Council is celebrating a significant waste milestone, marking 12 months since the introduction of the successful 120L purple bin for glass.
The purple bin, one of four kerbside collection services currently offered to more than 26,000 properties, has proved a tremendous success since its introduction, with more than 540 tonnes of eligible glass collected in that time.
Introduced in July 2024 to ensure compliance with Victorian State Government legislation, the service aims to improve the quality of our recycling, while ensuring eligible glass materials can be turned into new products for re-use locally.
In addition to the more than 540 tonnes of glass collected through kerbside service, residents have also embraced the service by dropping close to 6.9 tonnes of glass to the Mildura Transfer Station.
Local businesses, meanwhile, have contributed a further 159 tonnes through drop-offs to the Mildura Transfer Station, while a further 11 tonnes of glass has been collected at our Rural Transfer Stations.
There's also been a 30% reduction in the tonnes being collected through the yellow kerbside recycling bin since the purple bin was rolled out.
Councillor for Environmental and Sustainability Jodi Ewings thanked the community for their support of the new service.
"The data really does speak for itself, and it's a testament to the work people are doing at home and at work to ensure their valuable glass waste is being recycled through the new service, or at one of our transfer stations," Cr Ewings said.
"Our latest audit data also demonstrates that people are getting it sorted correctly when it comes to the glass bin – with only a two percent contamination rate detected.
"This is a fantastic result – and I can't thank the community enough for how quickly they have embraced the service."
Cr Ewings said Council's Waste team would continue to work with the local community to improve collections of the purple bin, with the presentation rate of the once-every-four-weeks service lower compared to other Councils.
"This is understandable given how new the service still is, and the fact that it is only collected once every four weeks," Cr Ewings said.
"I would encourage people to head to our website and regularly check when their next collection is due.
"It's important to put your bins out each collection, regardless of how much – or how little – the amount of waste being collected is."
Cr Ewings said that Council's Engineering team was continuing to explore options to incorporate recycled glass into the construction of road and other civil projects.
"This work will provide us with a cost-effective road base for our projects," Cr Ewings said.
Community education about the new 120L kerbside glass service was supported with funding from Sustainability Victoria's Circular Economy Household Education Fund.
"It's fantastic to see that Mildura Rural City Council has had a successful roll-out of the glass bin and residents and business are embracing this new service," Sustainability Victoria's CEO Matt Genever said.
"Glass really is our recycling hero because it can be recycled again and again without losing quality. What's more, producing new glass containers from recycled material uses 20% to 30% less energy than using virgin resources.
"Keeping the resources and materials we have in circulation for as long as possible is an important part of our transition to a circular economy."
Learn more about how to get your waste sorted by visiting www.mildura.vic.gov.au/waste
