Council partners delivering award-winning kerbside reform

For Merri-Bek City Council

Combining hyper-local logistical and organisational expertise with targeted, personalised resident engagement to deliver an award-winning kerbside reform program.

Merri-bek City Council - a metropolitan Melbourne council with over 170,000 residents - is recognised as a leader in sustainable policy as well as a first-mover in waste and recycling reform. In mid 2023, Merri-bek embarked on a significant milestone in its kerbside waste reform by introducing a four bin kerbside service.

This project aimed to enhance waste management and recycling practices for the community and align the council with legislation which requires all Victorian councils have a standard four-bin system or equivalent by 2030. By expanding waste and recycling into four streams, contamination will be reduced, recycling rates will increase and the quality of recycled materials recovered for reuse will also increase.

Reground, a circular economy social enterprise with expertise in resource recovery, logistics and behaviour change, played a pivotal role in the successful delivery of this very important project with a delivery system that was not only highly efficient but also deeply personalised, liaising with residents to ensure their needs were met and that they understood the changes (and their importance.)

Merri-bek’s kerbside reform program posed a unique challenge, requiring both extensive logistic and organisational expertise at a hyper-local level and targeted, effective communications that would engage residents with new waste systems. Reground was Merri-Bek’s logistical and delivery partner for the duration of the reform process, our contributions included:

• liaising with residents

• visiting multi-unit developments to asses their needs

• delivering and retiring bins

• on-the-spot monitoring, evaluation and troubleshooting

• personalised engagement with residents both in-person and over the phone

Outcomes

Between March and June 2023, new Mixed Recycling, Glass, and Food and Garden Organics (FOGO) bins were delivered throughout Merri-bek and 65,000 old bins were retired from the kerb.

From July 1, the Council also supported residents to customise their waste and recycling by swapping their FOGO and Mixed Recycling bins for different sizes.

By carefully managing and executing this kerbside waste reform project, Merri-bek City Council and Reground successfully transitioned over 2,500 residences to a 4-bin kerbside service.

The project was later awarded Outstanding Waste and Resource Recovery Project: Metro at the National 2023 Waste Innovation and Recycling Awards, formally recognising Reground and Merri-bek’s work to improve recycling systems for residents.

This success is even more notable as Merri-bek is one of the very first Victorian councils to successfully roll out the four-bin system.