Electronic Waste Vouchers to Replace Waste Weekends

Published on 21 May 2021

Snowy Valleys’ ratepayers will now have access to quarterly electronic domestic waste voucher to redeem at a time that suits them within that quarter.

The electronic vouchers will be delivered via the SVC Waste App and those without tablets or smart phones will have the option to request a hardcopy voucher via Council’s customer service desk.

Mayor James Hayes was encouraged by the trial’s results and said it made sense to move to a permanent voucher system.

“Implementing the voucher system supports Council’s zero waste strategy and will enable staff more time to talk to users, inspect loads, provide education, and increase recycling or re-use from material that would have ended up in landfill if delivered during a waste weekend,” Cr Hayes explained.

Council voted to trial the voucher system for a period of six months and requested a follow-up report in June 2021 with a consideration, if the trial was successful to replace the existing waste weekends with the voucher system.

During the successful four-month trial 1,600 people downloaded the SVC Waste App from both the Apple Store and Google Play, and more than 350 waste vouchers were redeemed.

Executive Director Infrastructure Heinz Kausche said the intention of the trial was to test if a voucher system would be used by the public and what potential it had to improve traffic flows through the resource recovery centres.

“The results show that people embraced the opportunity to use the voucher at a time that best suited them which allowed for resources required for transfer station operation to be reduced to normal levels as compared to a waste weekend,” Mr Kausche said.

The amount of waste going to landfill from free waste weekends has increased significantly from when it was first implemented in 2014, with landfill waste generated over the special weekends approximately equivalent to the amount of waste for a whole year.

Mr Kausche said he was hopeful that the Waste App and digital vouchers would drive a positive shift enabling increased focus on recycling and waste reduction as compared to promoting free waste disposal.

“Because of the sheer volumes on those waste weekends, staff did not have time to sort materials for recycling which meant no resource recovery, just huge volumes to landfill,” Mr Kausche said

“The queuing and crowding on the waste weekends also caused safety and logistical issues and the voucher trial has resulted in better traffic flows and has proven to be significantly easier to manage compared to a waste weekend,” he said.

Mr Kausche said the SVC Waste App also provides users with various additional benefits, including quick access to information about waste and recycling materials, kerbside collection calendars, location details and opening times for the resource recovery centres.

The NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2014–21 provides a clear framework for waste management in NSW including diverting 75 per cent of household waste from landfill and increasing recycling rates to 70 per cent. These targets will likely increase over the next several years.

The move to a digital voucher system for bulky domestic waste, coupled with the upcoming roll-out of the new food and garden organics (FOGO) kerbside bin, is estimated to increase diversion rates for household waste from landfill in the Snowy Valleys to approximately 60% in the next couple of years with the target to reach at least 75% over the next 10 years.