South-East Melbourne’s Food Scraps Will Soon Be Put to Good Use

Households across Melbourne’s south-east will soon be able to throw food scraps into their green bin thanks to a new $65 million composting plant in Dandenong South. Currently, residents can’t put anything other than garden waste into their green bins.

Each year the South Eastern Organics Processing Facility will transform 120,000 tonnes of food and garden waste from homes in Bayside, Cardinia, Casey, Frankston, Glen Eira, Greater Dandenong, Kingston and Monash into 50,000 tonnes of compost, which will then make its way to municipal gardens and parks.

“This facility alone, which will be the most advanced of its type in Victoria, can process around 12,000 truckloads of waste per year,” Federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg said in a statement. “It means food and organic waste produced by south-east Melbourne residents will not end up in landfill and will instead produce high-grade compost for our gardens and parks.”

Bayside City Council, for example, says it sends about 11,500 tonnes of food scraps to landfill every year.

In the statement, Minister Frydenberg likened the estimated annual reduction in CO2 emissions to the city removing almost 14,000 cars from the road.

The facility will be partially financed by a $38 million loan from the federal government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The Age reports it will be built by Spanish construction company Sacyr. The company has assured Dandenong South residents that odours will be managed by deodorising systems and sealed storage reservoirs.

Construction is already underway, and the facility is expected to be running by mid-2019. Until then, residents should wait to hear from their local councils before tossing food scraps into their green bins.