Saving the environment one or thousands of kilos at a time

By Nicola Ceccato

Jan 31, 2024

**A second life:** Greater Shepparton has been able to divert waste, such as household textiles, clothing, and shoes, from landfills through its textile recovery boxes.

Nine thousand eight hundred and thirty-five kilograms is a huge number.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

But that’s how many clothes, shoes, accessories and household textiles were saved from Greater Shepparton City Council’s landfill last year.

Since October 2023, Greater Shepparton City Council’s partnership with the Upcycle 4 Better program has been collecting textiles to be reused or recycled into a new product.

Between the start of the program and December 31, 2023, 9835kg was collected across all three council resource recovery centres.

Now, gearing towards the end of January, the number is bound to be higher.

Over the past three months, resource recovery centre collections reached 8016kg in Shepparton, 1809kg at Ardmona, and 10kg at Murchison.

Similarly, Strathbogie Shire Council, who are also using the program across their Violet Town, Nagambie, Euroa, and Avenel resource recovery centres, saw 1849kg of textiles stopped from going to landfill.

These numbers are from the start of their program at the end of November last year to December 31, 2023.

When the program started, Greater Shepparton City Council resource recovery manager Liam Moller said they were impressed by how responsive residents were to the program.

“It was fantastic to see the response from the community to jump on that so quickly after it had been commissioned,” Mr Moller said.

“We knew it would be utilised, but that quickly, at that rate, was fantastic.

“Council had the initial plan to do a monthly collection of the textiles but hit capacity of the bin itself in the first week, so we had to bring the collection of the textiles to a weekly collection due to the demand of the community.”

The program is just one of several initiatives the council has taken to work towards net zero emissions in 2030 and divert waste from landfill.

Bin collection changes and a nappy collection program are among those initiatives, as well as a glass kerbside bin, which will roll out in the coming months.

Not only is diverting waste from landfill good for the environment and avoiding further greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere, but it also saves money.

Every quarter, councils are required to submit a waste levy statement to the Environment Protection Authority Victoria detailing how much waste has been put to landfill.

The cost of landfill waste is measured per tonne, which can build up into a significant annual expense for council.

According to Greater Shepparton City Council’s 2022-23 annual report, council spent $1,699,000 on their EPA tax.

Hopefully, with programs like Upcycle 4 Better and other waste management changes, that levy will go down for the 2023-24 financial year.

Mr Moller said by initiating these programs, Greater Shepparton is on the right trajectory for lower waste levy taxes and, ultimately, lower emissions.

“Despite the adaptation process and frequency change, I think there’s that inherent desire to do right with what we can, and I always like to say there’s no wrong; there’s just getting better, and we will get better and better,” he said.

“We’re very thankful that residents have utilised the service so readily, and I look forward to seeing what we can achieve going forward.”

To recycle your textiles, take them to the Shepparton, Murchison or Ardmona resource recovery centres.

For more information on what to recycle, visit council’s website.