What You Need to Know About Green Waste

Australians send an average of 64 million tonnes of waste to landfills each year, with a good chunk of that being green waste. If you think that your green waste that goes into landfills breaks down easily and returns to the earth, you wouldn’t be alone.

Unfortunately, it’s incredibly hard for green waste to do this when it’s sitting in a landfill. When waste is packed in tightly with little oxygen, it slows down the breakdown process considerably. This sensation is known as anaerobic decomposition, and it creates landfill gases that contain methane and carbon dioxide. If these reach the outside atmosphere, they become powerful greenhouse gases that have devastating environmental impacts.

What does this mean?

What this means is that to help keep your greenhouse gas emissions down, you need to find a different way to dispose of your green waste. Green waste includes:

• • Leaves, flowers, and lawn clippings
  • Small branches and trunks
  • Weeds, vines, and creepers

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to recycle your green waste so that it can be turned into compost and used on farms, gardens and parklands. Here are our top tips for green waste disposal:

Use your green waste bin

In many local councils throughout Australia, residents are provided with a green garden waste bin that’s collected either fortnightly or once a month. Generally, a maximum of two cubic metres will be collected a month on a specified day, and sometimes bookings must be made to ensure your bin is collected.

Although this small amount of waste collected once a month won’t be enough for many households, especially those with large gardens that require a lot of work, it’s a good starting point for many Australians who are just starting to discover the importance of green waste recycling. All green waste collected by your local council will be transported, mulched, and composted at a green waste recycling centre and kept out of landfills.

When using your green waste bin, it’s important to remember to place all of your waste in there loose. If you put it in plastic, biodegradable, or compostable bin bags it cannot be recycled properly.

Hire a Green Waste Recycling Company

If you’ve got more green waste that your local council knows what to do with, you can hire the services of a green waste recycling company. Most garden waste removal companies will deliver a skip bin to your property in your chosen size, and pick it back up once you’re done with it. From there, they’ll take it to a green waste recycling facility and ensure it’s taken care of properly.

Services like this are perfect for when you have large amounts of unwanted garden waste that you need to be taken care of immediately, with quick, reliable service that’ll leave your property spotless.

To make sure that your waste is disposed of in the most sustainable way possible, these companies will generally be pretty strict on what can and cannot go into their skip bins. With that said, make sure you follow their instructions carefully and avoid placing items such as plastic bags, plant pots, and general rubbish into their bins.

While you can drive your green waste to these recycling centres yourself, it’s a dirty job that can get your car seriously messy. Plus, you have to pay a fee at the facility and you’ll have to unload all your waste yourself. That’s why it’s recommended that you leave it to the professionals, as they know how to get the job done in the most efficiency way possible every time.

Home composting or mulching

If your home only produces a small amount of garden waste, you can set up your own little composting or mulching system right in your backyard. Green waste is perfect to use on your garden beds as mulch, helping your garden to improve its soil structure, reduce its need for water and help retain more water.

Garden waste can also be placed in a compost bin along with food scraps, where it will break down and can then be used to improve the quality of your soil. Many local councils have a composting rebate program, helping you save money on composting products such as compost bins, turning tools, and farm blankets.