At the Armidale Waste Management Facility, sustainability and recycling is a priority – but they need residents’ help.

The composting system in Armidale is quite unique, and recycling chief James Turnell has championed the process.

“We developed our own composting process here, we modelled it off work that was done down near Goulburn,” he said.

“We’re hoping people will help us out in their kitchens by diverting waste from the red bin to the green bin.”

The green bin is a well-established receptacle for garden waste, but it’s food waste that can really make a difference to closing the landfill loop.

Free kitchen caddy’s are available to all residents in Armidale, along with a supply of biodegradable bags as part of the City to Soil program.

Food scraps and leftovers that are put into the green bin are then turned into a high grade compost at the facility.

“A lot of people were home-composting using worm farms and City to Soil encourages that – all we ask is that it doesn’t go in the red bin,” Mr Turnell said.

“There’s a couple of reasons why we don’t want food waste in the red bin, predominantly because when food goes into the landfill it breaks down anaerobically – it breaks down in the absence of oxygen and produces methane.

“Methane in itself can be a resource, but if you can’t collect it or it’s not viable to collect it goes straight into the atmosphere and it is a significant greenhouse gas.”

Food waste that goes into the green bin processes in aerobic conditions, it’s then processed and turned into a compost without generating methane.

Kitchen scraps are needed to balance carbon and nitrogen.

“It has a nice amount of nitrogen in it which helps to balance out the high amount of carbon you get from leaf and green waste,” Mr Turnell said.

“Turning food waste into a resource reduces the amount of waste going into landfill, but it also reduces other unpleasant aspects of landfills like odour and it stops the attraction of other things like vermin.”

Mr Turnell said it all comes down to changing mindsets about the environment.

“We really want to try to maximise the participation rates – but, you know the old saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink,” he said.

“We’d like to thank the community for their effort and support and we encourage those that may not think it’s important to divert food waste to know it really is.”