The Dubbo tip could soon supply mulch for residents to buy.
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The potential boost for gardens appeared on the horizon as Dubbo City Council reported on its preparations to set up a regular collection for household organic waste.
The council suggests its third kerbside service is at least two years away but a neighbouring city is where there’s a stink about waste.
Orange residents pay an $82.40 yearly green bin fee - and then their council charges customers of the compost and mulch it produces at a rate of $36 per cubic metre.
Orange City councillor Reg Kidd recently called for the products to be given away as an incentive to use green bins.
Dubbo council has a more modest vision for the moment.
It plans to sell mulch from its Whylandra Waste and Recycling Centre on a cost-recovery basis, starting in November.
“We’re looking at making a limited quantity of mulch available,” council asset systems engineer Michael McCulloch said.
“It could be picked up by residents.”
Collectively Dubbo’s garbage service users threw away 11,000 tonnes of waste and recycled 3200 tonnes of materials in the 2012-2013 financial year, Mr McCulloch reported.
“At the moment the organic waste is shredded or chipped to produce mulch for the revegetation of the landfill site,” he said.
Mr McCulloch said the supply of mulch reflected the more recent emphasis on resource recovery, one of the many changes he had seen in his 20 years with the council.
Bathurst Regional Council offers its residents free mulch by the trailer load, but it is yet to introduce green bins.
Unlike Orange City Council’s initiative to process garden and organic food waste for several weeks to make compost, Bathurst council only shreds garden waste dropped at its tip by residents into mulch.