FAQs

For this project we are looking at all things that can be placed in a kerbside green lidded  bin and turned into compost. There is heaps you can compost, here’s a very quick summary of the most common items:

• Food waste, including seafood & meat
• Coffee grounds and tea bags/leaves
• Egg cartons
• Pet waste (not in plastic bags)
• Greasy pizza boxes & paper bags
• Newspapers (lose)
• Hair and nail clippings
• Garden pruning (weeds, branches, leaves, flowers)
• Post-it notes and shredded paper
• Tissues and paper towel

Hot tip: If it grows it goes – anything that has grown is good to go into a kerbside green lidded bin.

For  additional items visit: www.whichbin.sa.gov.au/a-z-items

Adelaide Hills Council offers its residents a number of options to encourage and enable recycling of food and garden organic waste. 

Food and garden organics bins (FOGO bins) are collected kerbside fortnightly from households in township areas (~10,000 households) and sent to a compost facility. 

Free green organic drop off days are held throughout the year (~14 days per year) across three sites. 

Residents without FOGO kerbside bins, (predominantly outside of township boundary areas), are eligible to receive two vouchers per financial year to dispose of organics at the Heathfield Resource Recovery Centre.

We want to find out what our residents and businesses do with their green organics and any suggestions they have about the green organic services provided by Council. With that information we can make plans for t future recycling and resource recovery.

No changes are being made to bin pick-up days or frequency. At this stage we are just finding out how our residents and business dispose of their green organics and food waste.

We will be working with our community to improve messaging to help users put more of the correct items in the green organics and recycling bins. These items can then be treated as resource for composting and become a new usable product such as garden compost and mulch.

When food scraps (and other organic waste like garden clippings, and compostable packaging) are put in the green organics bin they are collected and then composted by Jeffries, a local South Australian company. This helps to stimulate our local economy, create local jobs, and build a product that can be used to grow food and other plants in our backyards and farms. 

Read more about the process here: https://www.whichbin.sa.gov.au/mls/what-happens-to-the-materials-in-your-green-bin-app

No. At this stage we are just finding out how our residents and business dispose of their green organics and food waste.

Visit the A-Z register of recycling for items that can be placed in your organics bin: https://www.whichbin.sa.gov.au/a-z-items

If it didn’t grow, it doesn’t go- that’s the rule for the food and garden organics bin.

50 things that DONT belong in your green organics bin!

Jeffries Compostable vs Biodegradable info flyer 2018

Kitchen caddies are available to all residents, regardless if you have an organics kerbside bin, free of charge. Kitchen caddy starter kits are available from all council service centre’s and will include a caddy, a roll of compostable bags, information on use and a sticker for the caddy.

Replacement kitchen caddy bags are available at all councils service centre’s for a minimal fee.

Additional organic bins are available to properties with green organic bins currently. Apply for an additional bin using the following form: https://www.eastwaste.com.au/your-council/adelaide-hills-council/

Contact East Waste on (08) 8347 5150 to report missed waste collections.

Contact East on (08) 8347 5150 to report damaged or stolen bins.

The processing of the green organic drop off days is different to the processing of the kerbside organic bin products. The drop off day product is mulched and regeneration of the product is possible. The kerbside organics is composted, reaching high temperatures to break down and therefore regeneration does not occur.

Properties without access to an organics bin can, upon request, can access two organics vouchers per financial year. The vouchers provide for the disposal of two trailer loads of organic waste at the Heathfield Resource Recovery Centre.

Adelaide Hills Council does not have a fixed charge within the rates for waste disposal therefore a reduction in rates is not possible.

Take part in this project by having your say using the tools on the front of this engagement page.

Currently Council’s green organic bin service collection area is based on legislative requirements, property size, collection routes and township or urban localities.  However a consultation process is underway to review this service and we encourage you to provide your feedback via https://engage.ahc.sa.gov.au/green-and-food-waste-project

If your property doesn’t fall within the collection area, you are able to access two green organic tip vouchers annually which allows you to dispose, free of charge, one caged 7 x 5 trailer load of green organics per voucher at the Heathfield Resource Recovery Centre.  If you wish to access these vouchers, please contact one of Council’s Customer Service Officers on 8408 0400.

Council also holds free green organic drop off days throughout the year to assist with property clean-up and fire prevention.  Details of the upcoming dates for the remainder of 2020 are as follows:

Gumeracha, Woodside and Heathfield - 9am to 4pm (Service will be cancelled if a Catastrophic or Extreme Fire Danger Day is declared by the CFS)

Proof of residency required

Acceptable items:

Clean residential green organics including grass clippings, prunings, leaves, small branches (up to 100mm diameter), and burned vegetation up to 100mm in diameter. Loads are limited to a 7x5 trailer per visit (no limit to visits made).

Unacceptable items:
Commercial or truck loads of materials, waste or hard rubbish, or proclaimed weeds including Rose, Poplar, Blackberry, Gorse, Olive, Bridal creeper, Kikuyu, Couch, and Bamboo. These can be disposed of at the Heathfield Resource Recovery Centre for a fee. Click here for a comprehensive list of organics that are not accepted. 

Drop off locations: