City of Greater Geraldton opens the lid on yellow top bins, putting them on its 2024-25 budget radar

The City of Greater Geraldton is considering initial moves to introduce yellow top recycling even though the road to rolling out the program is likely to be expensive. Many locals — and newcomers who come from locations which offer yellow top bins — repeatedly ask the question of why Geraldton does not have the recycling bins. It has been a topic of discussion for years, and now the council has revealed it is taking early steps towards introducing a recycling program. An online petition started by former resident, Duke Warren, titled Bring Yellow Bins to Gero and signed by 1180 people so far, got the ball rolling for the city, according Mayor Jerry Clune. “I think it probably spurred a bit of work behind the scenes,” he said. The city announced it would be putting a recycling program into the deliberations for the 2024-25 budget, although it hasn’t been revealed what the funding will go towards — it will be researching the feasibility of a yellow bin scheme. There are a number of reasons why the city have not been able to introduce the program earlier, with most roads leading to funding. City of Greater Geraldton CEO Ross McKim used the words “very expensive” to describe the journey. Mayor Jerry Clune said the ideal model included sorting and processing the waste locally, which would involve building a new space at Meru Waste Management Facility. “From a costing point of view, it goes on and on,” he said. The price tag for the new facility is estimated at $6 million, according to Mr Clune, with further costs for trucks, labour, processing and product that needs to be sent to Perth for further processing. Right now, the food organics garden organics (FOGO) recycling trial has seen a contamination rate of 30-40 per cent, prompting Mr Clune to say “there needs to be some education around it too. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. Mr Clune said the city was also conscious of density. “You don’t get the economy of density with pickups. It’s expensive on that side of things. The wear and tear of extra trucks — suburb roads aren’t spec to take heavy trucks like that,” he said. Although the road to recycling has been long, the destination of a yellow top bin service may be closer than many realise. “Recycling is moving pretty quickly, and the need for it is too,” Mr Clune said. “The community is pushing for it so we’ve got to be considering it. We would like to be doing something, so we’ll see if we can get funding.” In the interim, Mr Clune encourages households to begin composting their at-home food waste, and being mindful of their consumption.