IT has been one year since the first green waste bins rolled into Lake Macquarie suburbs, and the council would like to take this opportunity to thank residents for their role in making the service a great success.
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Every household which has used the green waste service correctly has contributed to achieving impressive environmental and cost-saving outcomes for the city of Lake Macquarie.
Since its launch in April 2013, the fortnightly service has diverted more than 75,000 cubic metres - equivalent to 30 Olympic-sized swimming pools - of garden waste from landfill and processed it into mulch and compost.
This has resulted in carbon emission savings of 22,500 tonnes, which is equal to taking 5300 cars off the road for a year.
The garden waste collected from our residents' green waste bins has had a contamination rate of consistently less than 0.5 per cent.
This excellent result, which compares favourably to other local government areas, means high-quality compost and mulch is produced, which can be used on parks, sporting grounds and in agriculture.
These are outstanding results for a city determined to take a smarter approach to waste.
The council's green waste service is just one component of its comprehensive waste strategy, which has put Lake Macquarie on track to achieve a 75 per cent reduction in waste to landfill from city and council operations by 2023.
