Food and Garden Organics Best Practice Collection Manual

About the manual

Organic waste represents a significant proportion of Australia's waste and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. One objective of the National Waste Policy: Less waste, more resources is to enhance biodegradable (organic) resource recovery and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfills. To support this objective, the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities commissioned the Food and Garden Organics Best Practice Collection Manual.

The Food and Garden Organics Best Practice Collection Manual addresses each step in the consideration, planning and implementation of an organics collection scheme, from investigating the right type of systems to adopt, through to scheme roll out and ongoing monitoring and evaluation of scheme performance.

The manual highlights the importance of effective communication and public engagement and the need to monitor and evaluate schemes to achieve the best result.

The manual was developed in consultation with key stakeholders and with input from a working group, with members from state governments, local government associations, waste contractors and local councils.

Download the fact sheets and presentations from the manual

Fact sheets from the manual are provided below. Each fact sheet has been developed into a simple PowerPoint presentation in order to allow officers to easily adapt the materials and messages for use in council meetings, staff briefings and other stakeholder consultation steps.

PLANNING YOUR SCHEME

These fact sheets provide the background, context and theory behind gathering all the required information to inform the design of a successful organics collection system. These factsheets answer Why? and What? to consider.

Fact sheet 1 - Why collect organics?

• Download the fact sheet - Why collect organics? (PDF - 130KB) |  (Word - 239KB)
• Download the presentation - Why collect organics? (PPTX - 586.56 KB) |  (PDF - 185KB)

Fact sheet 2 - Understanding your waste stream

• Download the fact sheet - Understanding your waste stream (PDF - 317KB) |  (Word - 1160KB)
• Download the presentation - Understanding your waste stream (PPTX - 272.62 KB) |  (PDF - 90KB)

Fact sheet 3 - Understanding the collection options

• Download the fact sheet - Understanding the collection options (PDF - 220KB) |  (Word - 1636KB)
• Download the presentation - Understanding the collection options (PPTX - 256.99 KB) |  (PDF - 77KB)

Fact sheet 4 - Understanding community education and engagement

• Download the fact sheet - Understanding community education and engagement (PDF - 94KB) |  (Word - 160KB)
• Download the presentation - Understanding community education and engagement (PPTX - 262.73 KB) |  (PDF - 90KB)

Fact sheet 5 - Understanding the processing options

• Download the fact sheet - Understanding the processing options (PDF - 215KB) |  (Word - 568KB)
• Download the presentation - Understanding the processing options (PPTX - 261.99 KB) |  (PDF - 91KB)

Fact sheet 6 - Understanding the possible risks

• Download the fact sheet - Understanding the possible risks (PDF - 168KB) |  (Word - 369KB)
• Download the presentation - Understanding the possible risks (PPTX - 265.21 KB) |  (PDF - 97KB)

Fact sheet 7 - Understanding the costs and savings

• Download the fact sheet - Understanding the costs and savings (PDF - 173KB) |  (Word - 448KB)
• Download the presentation - Understanding the costs and savings (PPTX - 316.17 KB) |  (PDF - 136KB)

Fact sheet 8 - Understanding monitoring and evaluation

• Download the fact sheet - Understanding monitoring and evaluation (PDF - 336KB) |  (Word - 1789KB)
• Download the presentation - Understanding monitoring and evaluation (PPTX - 312.2 KB) |  (PDF - 128KB)

IMPLEMENTING YOUR SCHEME

These fact sheets provide practical guidance on implementing your collection scheme and answer How? and When? each step should be undertaken.

Fact sheet 9 - Conducting and evaluating a pilot trial

• Download the fact sheet - Conducting and evaluating a pilot trial (PDF - 340KB) |  (Word - 3235KB)
• Download the presentation - Conducting and evaluating a pilot trial (PPTX - 278.77 KB) |  (PDF - 134KB)

Fact sheet 10 - Scheme design and roll-out

• Download the fact sheet - Scheme design and roll-out (PDF - 174KB) |  (Word - 1301KB)
• Download the presentation - Scheme design and roll-out presentation (PPTX - 270.54 KB) |  (PDF - 109KB)

Fact sheet 11 - Conducting community education and management

• Download the fact sheet - Conducting community education and management (PDF - 168KB) |  (Word - 742KB)
• Download the presentation - Conducting community education and management (PPTX - 268.56 KB) |  (PDF - 103KB)

Fact sheet 12 - Contamination management

• Download the fact sheet - Contamination management (PDF - 209KB) |  (Word - 1145KB)
• Download the presentation - Contamination management (PPTX - 261.53 KB) |  (PDF - 85KB)

Fact sheet 13 - Conducting monitoring and evaluation

• Download the fact sheet - Conducting monitoring and evaluation (PDF - 76KB) |  (Word - 83KB)
• Download the presentation - Conducting monitoring and evaluation presentation (PPTX - 266.22 KB) |  (PDF - 96KB)