A trial of green food-waste collection bins will be paused in Brisbane, council budget papers reveal.
About 13,000 Brisbane households were asked to collect food scraps in a free kitchen caddy and place them into green waste bins for recycling.
But Brisbane City Council’s trial, which started in 2022, will be paused from July 1 this year.
The trial cost $2.3 million a year, but just 4 per cent of material in green wheelie bins within the trial area were food scraps.
The average red-topped wheelie bin was believed to contain about 23 per cent of food waste.
The council will launch an investigation into possible ways to reduce landfill, including a citywide roll-out of green waste recycling bins for stand-alone homes, deploying green bins to suitable apartment buildings, and installing community-based recycling hubs for batteries, CDs, glasses, X-rays and drug blister packs at libraries, community facilities and sports clubs.
The council will continue to offer half-price green bins at less than $1 a week.
You can read my take on the food waste trial from March, where I questioned whether it was working, here.