On Monday 15 December, Councillors unanimously decided they would not commit to the introduction of a standalone kerbside glass bin service in Boroondara despite current legislation.
Instead, we will continue to advocate for the State Government to pause their mandated rollout and work with us to create more efficient, cost-effective options that can achieve the same environmental results without costing our residents millions of dollars.
The cost associated with rolling out a purple glass-only kerbside bin in Boroondara is substantial, with a report finding an approximate implementation cost of $6.5 million, and an annual ongoing service cost of approximately $2.2 million. The State Government has offered less than $1 million in grants to support the rollout of the glass-only bin, and no ongoing funding.
Other councils who have already introduced a glass-only kerbside bin have found the service to be poorly used, with very low bin presentation rate (15 to 20% of bins put out for collection) and low usage (on average only 30% full).
Moving forward, we will focus our efforts on expanding the Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) network in Boroondara by increasing the number of local collection points and reverse vending machines.
This will also include advocating for wine bottles and other excluded glass containers to be accepted by Victoria's CDS, based on the positive results we have seen in other states.
In early 2026, we will also begin trailing CDS bin baskets across our parks and shopping strips. These baskets will be attached to our public bins and allow community members to either leave or take eligible 10 cent containers from them, rather than going in our public bins.
The State Government is yet to release its service standards for kerbside glass bins, despite mandating that all councils move to a 4-stream-system by 2030. We now join 7 other councils (Stonnington, Whitehorse, Monash, Manningham, Hume, Alpine and Campaspe) who have made the decision to not commit to the introduction of glass-only kerbside bins.
