The background to Kerbside Waste Collection

In May/June 2012, the Fleurieu Regional Waste Authority (FRWA) undertook a regional kerbside bin

audit of selected properties within the areas of Alexandrina Council, Kangaroo Island Council, City of

Victor Harbor and District Council of Yankalilla. The audit found that 55% of the general waste stream

consisted of potentially recyclable materials (28% recyclables and 27% food/green waste). On the

basis of this, FRWA recognized the potential to encourage diversion of waste from landfill by altering

the bin collection schedule: increasing the collection of recycling and green waste from 4‐weekly to

fortnightly and decreasing the collection of general waste from weekly to fortnightly.

FRWA’s constituent councils supported a Pilot/Trial of fortnightly collections within a small selected

area (crossing the boundary of Alexandrina Council and City of Victor Harbor) comprising of

630 dwellings. The project ran for four months, from 2 October 2013 to 22 January 2014, allowing

the effects of fortnightly collections to be evaluated both during times when few holiday makers are

present, through to the peak summer holiday season.

The Pilot demonstrated that the altered bin collection schedule increased the diversion of waste

from landfill by the permanent resident population (FRWA, 2014). This has the potential to mitigate

cost increases for waste management into the future and make better use of resources. Fortnightly

collections have already been successfully implemented in another region of SA, interstate and

overseas, as discussed further in Section 2.