Waste management
he City of Fremantle is a member of the South Metropolitan Regional Council (SMRC), which has implemented a regional waste management strategy, the Regional Resource Recovery Centre (RRRC). The centre has dramatically reduced household material sent to landfill by over 70%, by combining world-leading technology with a simple, community-friendly collection system.
The RRRC treats two major resource streams:
- Yellow top bin - mechanically sorted to separate recyclable streams such as paper, cardboard, metal, glass and various grades of plastics. These products are then sold to other companies for use in making new products.
- Green top bins - contents are manually sorted to remove any large, inorganic objects, such as basketballs or suitcases. The rest of the green top bins are industrially composted.
All non-recyclable and non-compostable items are automatically separated from both bins for landfill.
To ensure the processing plant operates properly and to minimise the amount of waste that ends up in landfill, it is important to know what to put into each bin. As a rule of thumb compostable material goes into the green bin with all other non-hazardous waste going in the yellow bin.
The City of Cockburn (a SMRC member) has created a short video to explain what goes in each bin in more detail, click here to view.
Waste audit
In late 2011 and 2012, the City conducted residential waste audits. Both of these audits showed that the yellow bins have 8% contamination and the green bins about 32% contamination.
Fremantle residents are doing a great job of keeping the recycling stream clean, but the City still needs to get the message out that the green bin is mostly for compost.
This clip shows a summary of the 2012 waste audit:
Hazardous household waste (HHW)
This type of waste includes batteries, paint, asbestos and chemicals.
You can now recycle your batteries at the City of Fremantle Depot, Knutsford Street, Fremantle or drop them into our service and information centre, located at the City of Fremantle, Town Hall Centre, 8 William Street, Fremantle.
Contact the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council on 08 9316 3988 for more information on how to safely handle batteries and other HHW items such as paint, asbestos and chemicals.