Many of these items do not belong in your general waste bin as they are hazardous to those that collect and dispose of your waste to landfill.

Needles

Needles can be disposed of free of charge at your local health centre or hospital.

Bairnsdale Hospital has large orange bins for needles for anyone to use.

Orbost Regional Health also has sharps containers for public use.

Council offers free exchange of sharps containers at its customer service centres for diabetic patients only.

Masks

Disposable or cloth masks go in the general waste bin. Cut the loops off before putting in the bin to prevent injury to wildlife.

If you or a family member have been diagnosed or have symptoms of COVID-19, place the masks in a sealed plastic bag and place in the general waste bin.

Medicine

Any unwanted or expired medicines can be returned free to a pharmacy under the Return Unwanted Medicines Project.

To find out how to dispose of other items, please see the A-Z Waste - Where to Next page.

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Kitchen 2 Compost is a program operating in Mallacoota to collect food waste and compost it locally.

It began in 2010 as a collaboration between Council, Gippsland Regional Waste Management Group, and the Mallacoota community.

The program aims to reduce the amount of organic waste in landfill by diverting it for composting.

The program has been successful in reducing landfill dependency, with the resulting compost being used by Council operations.

What is the Kitchen 2 Compost program?

Food and garden organics are collected from kerbside bins in Mallacoota. This waste is transported to our composting facility on Watertrust Road where it is processed into compost that can be used in our parks, gardens and landfill rehabilitation.

What can be disposed of in the kerbside bin?

All food organics, including fruit and vegetable scraps, meat, and dairy products, can be disposed of in the kerbside bin.

Garden organics such as leaves, grass clippings, and prunings can also be placed in the bin.

Plastic bags, non-organic materials, and hazardous waste should not be placed in the bin.

How you can participate

Participation in the program is easy! Simply place your food and garden organics in the kerbside Green Waste bin.

We provide compostable bags and kitchen caddies to residents who wish to use them.

These are free and available from Mallacoota IGA and Bendigo Bank.

Benefits of Kitchen 2 Compost

Kitchen 2 Compost offers numerous benefits to the Mallacoota community.

By diverting waste from landfill, the program reduces greenhouse gas emissions - food waste breaking down in landfill creates a large amount of methane.

This program also prolongs the lifespan of our landfills as, on average, waste in a red-lidded general waste bin is 40% food waste.