Welcome to the Australian Local Food System Policy Database. This is a collection of policies from New South Wales (NSW) and Victorian local governments that relate to healthy, sustainable, and equitable food systems.
For further information about using the database and how it was created see How to use the database. You can search the database by using the fields below. Domain refers to eight broad categories under which various topics are situated. The domains and topics are based on a framework of recommendations for local government action on creating a healthy, sustainable, and equitable food system (also located on the ‘How to use the database’ page linked above).
To cite the database: Reeve B, Carrad A, Rose N, Charlton K & Aguirre-Bielschowsky I (2021) Australian Local Food System Policy Database. Available at: https://law-food-systems.sydney.edu.au/policy-database (access date).
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Hold Ctrl to select multiple terms. Using ‘any words’ functions as an “OR” search. Using ‘all words’ functions as and “AND” search.
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| Document title | Relevant text in the policy | Domain | Topic | State | Local Government name | Council type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Greater Geelong | the planning system should protect opportunities through maintaining land in parcels with productive and management potential and minimising land lost to building development and non agricultural use. Intensive animal industries and other shed based agriculture should be carefully located so that rural and scenic non urban landscapes are preserved. Agriculture should not compromise the condition of the natural resource base. | Sustainability and Environment | Sustainable local food production | Victoria | Greater Geelong | Regional |
| City of Greater Geelong | The Recommended Strategic Directions The Geelong Rural Land Strategy sets out a long term vision for the City’s rural areas that Reinforces a rural – farmed landscape beyond the urban areas Continues to protect and provide opportunities for productive agriculture Enhances the condition of the environment and the natural resource base, and Contributes to the ongoing economic prosperity and quality lifestyle of the region | Sustainability and Environment | Sustainable local food production | Victoria | Greater Geelong | Regional |
| City of Kingston Open Space Strategy Part 1: Overview | Vegetable Garden/ Pasture/ Agriculture | Sustainability and Environment | Sustainable local food production | Victoria | Kingston | Metropolitan |
| City of Kingston Open Space Strategy Part 1: Overview | Community horticulture | Sustainability and Environment | Food production on LG land | Victoria | Kingston | Metropolitan |
| City of Kingston Open Space Strategy Part 1: Overview | Community Horticulture Areas dedicated to horticultural or agricultural recreation activities, such as community garden plots. | Sustainability and Environment | Food production on LG land | Victoria | Kingston | Metropolitan |
| City of Kingston Open Space Strategy Part 1: Overview | Vegetable Garden/ Pasture/ Agriculture | Sustainability and Environment | Food production on LG land | Victoria | Kingston | Metropolitan |
| City of Kingston Open Space Strategy Part 1: Overview | Community horticulture | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Kingston | Metropolitan |
| City of Kingston Open Space Strategy Part 1: Overview | Community Horticulture Areas dedicated to horticultural or agricultural recreation activities, such as community garden plots. | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Kingston | Metropolitan |
| City of Kingston Open Space Strategy Part 1: Overview | Vegetable Garden/ Pasture/ Agriculture | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Kingston | Metropolitan |
| City of Kingston Open Space Strategy Part 1: Overview | Vegetable Garden/ Pasture/ Agriculture | Sustainability and Environment | Animal husbandry | Victoria | Kingston | Metropolitan |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | 5. Community waste education Council runs a range of workshops on gardening, home composting, worm farming, backyard chickens, food waste avoidance etc. Many of these workshops are held at Council’s demonstration facility at the Landcare Resource Centre, Teralba | Health and Wellbeing | Education/events on food system issues | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | Strategies to avoid and reduce waste generation and reuse waste Council intends to continue to support activities that avoid and reduce the amount of waste that is generated within the City and encourage the reuse of waste. Specific strategies include: • support for industrial ecology initiatives across the Hunter, where relevant to Lake Macquarie business interests; • advocacy for reduction in waste generated across the supply chain of goods and services used in the City; • community education and support to avoid the generation of waste (eg. food waste avoidance, lifecycle assessment of goods and services etc) | Health and Wellbeing | Education/events on food system issues | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | 4. Community gardening Community gardening can help to reduce food waste by both providing a ready source of fruit and vegetables, which can help reduce food wastage and minimise packaging, and creating demand for compost and mulch. Council supports community gardening across the City through a number of avenues: • A demonstration facility is available at Council’s Landcare Resource Centre, Teralba; • Community land can be made available for community gardening activities; and • Council officers provide advice and support to a network of community gardeners across the City. | Sustainability and Environment | Food production on LG land | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | 7. Environmental sustainability grants Grants of up to $3,000 are available to school and community groups to deliver environmental sustainability projects. Many of these projects are waste related, such as binless schools, composting facilities, community gardens etc | Sustainability and Environment | Food production on LG land | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | 4. Community gardening Community gardening can help to reduce food waste by both providing a ready source of fruit and vegetables, which can help reduce food wastage and minimise packaging, and creating demand for compost and mulch. Council supports community gardening across the City through a number of avenues: • A demonstration facility is available at Council’s Landcare Resource Centre, Teralba; • Community land can be made available for community gardening activities; and • Council officers provide advice and support to a network of community gardeners across the City. | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | 5. Community waste education Council runs a range of workshops on gardening, home composting, worm farming, backyard chickens, food waste avoidance etc. Many of these workshops are held at Council’s demonstration facility at the Landcare Resource Centre, Teralba | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | 7. Environmental sustainability grants Grants of up to $3,000 are available to school and community groups to deliver environmental sustainability projects. Many of these projects are waste related, such as binless schools, composting facilities, community gardens etc | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | 5. Community waste education Council runs a range of workshops on gardening, home composting, worm farming, backyard chickens, food waste avoidance etc. Many of these workshops are held at Council’s demonstration facility at the Landcare Resource Centre, Teralba | Sustainability and Environment | Animal husbandry | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | 10. Internal Council engagement activities Council has implemented a 3-bin waste system with source separation for general waste, recycling and food waste in the lunch-room and the café bars throughout its Administration building. These waste hubs, the removal of individual desk tidies, internal staff engagement and bin signage led to significant economic and environmental savings for Council. Separate waste and recycling bins have subsequently been installed at Council’s depot. Feedback is sought from staff to continue to improve the system and to ensure that contamination rates remain low | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | 4. Community gardening Community gardening can help to reduce food waste by both providing a ready source of fruit and vegetables, which can help reduce food wastage and minimise packaging, and creating demand for compost and mulch. Council supports community gardening across the City through a number of avenues: • A demonstration facility is available at Council’s Landcare Resource Centre, Teralba; • Community land can be made available for community gardening activities; and • Council officers provide advice and support to a network of community gardeners across the City. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | 5. Community waste education Council runs a range of workshops on gardening, home composting, worm farming, backyard chickens, food waste avoidance etc. Many of these workshops are held at Council’s demonstration facility at the Landcare Resource Centre, Teralba | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | 7. Environmental sustainability grants Grants of up to $3,000 are available to school and community groups to deliver environmental sustainability projects. Many of these projects are waste related, such as binless schools, composting facilities, community gardens etc | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | As part of development of the Draft Waste Strategy in 2010, Council examined 10 potential technology options (Table 3). These options were assessed against a set of triple bottom line weightings, and Option 3 (3-bin source separated collections, with phased introduction of garden and then food waste, and in vessel organics composting) was selected as the preferred technology. This option retained the existing garbage disposal (Awaba Waste Management Facility) and recycling sorting (Gateshead Material Recovery Facility) technologies (see pages 25 and 26 for further details) | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | Council intends to introduce food waste to the kerbside green waste bin service around July 2016. At this time, the garbage bin, which is currently collected weekly, will be collected fortnightly. The green bin, which will contain most odorous waste material, will be collected weekly. This service will be available to domestic and commercial customers. Self-hauled material, excluding biosolids and liquid waste, will also be accepted at the facility. It is likely that generation of food and garden waste from the City will reach the approved capacity of the Awaba Green Waste Processing Facility within the first 12 months of operation. It will be necessary to expand the facility to meet the City’s requirements. Council supports use of the Awaba Green Waste Processing Facility to process organics from elsewhere in the Hunter, providing that Council’s requirements are met. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | Expansion of organics collection and processing capability Council is currently preparing for the introduction of food organics into the kerbside green waste bin. Development consent has been granted for the construction of a 30,000 tonne per annum tunnel and windrow composting facility adjacent to the Awaba Waste Management Facility. The Awaba Green Waste Processing Facility, to be owned and operated by REMONDIS, is scheduled to be completed by May 2016. The contract term for REMONDIS to provide organics processing services to Council is 18 years from the commencement of Phase 2 operations. At this stage, the likely contract expiry date is around May 2034. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | food waste collection is 1 July 2016. The service will be available to both domestic and commercial premises; however, with opt-in arrangements for commercial premises, uptake is likely to be low (estimated at 5 per cent). | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | In addition to this direct funding, local government may compete for a range of grant programs supported by the WLRM Initiative. Since commencement of this competitive grants program, Council has received the following grants: • Early start Community Recycling Centre ($0.25m) (2013-14); • Regional Illegal Dumping Squad ($1.60m) (2013-14); • Love Food Hate Waste ($0.07m) (2013-14); • Orphaned Asbestos Clean Up ($0.17m) (2013-14, 2014-15); • Combatting Illegal Dumping ($0.15m) (2014-15); • Organics Infrastructure ($1.40m) (2014-15); and • Organics Collection ($0.69m) (2014-15). | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | On 28 February 2011 Council resolved to adopt a waste processing strategy incorporating: 1. A phased three bin, source separated organics (SSO) system with phasing of: a. Phase 1 – a source separated green (garden) SSG, fortnightly collection commencing as soon as is practicable; b. Phase 2 – a source separated organics (garden and kitchen) SSO weekly collection commencing as soon as is practicable. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | Organics The key strategy to recover organics from the waste streams sent to landfill is to introduce food waste to the kerbside green waste collection service. This is contingent on construction of the Awaba Green Waste Processing Facility (see page 25), which is scheduled for completion in 2016. The indicative commencement date for kerbside | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |
| City of Lake Macquarie Waste Strategy 2015-2023 | Reducing litter Litter is defined as waste in the environment that is not transported by a vehicle. The WARR Strategy identifies common types of litter as “cigarette butts, small pieces of paper, chip and confectionery wrappers, fast-food packaging, bottle caps, plastic straws, broken glass, drink containers and plastic bags.” Council aims to support the NSW Government’s state-wide litter reduction campaign and contribute to the WARR Strategy’s litter reduction target (see Table 1). Strategies to reduce litter Key strategies to reduce litter in Lake Macquarie City include: • supporting volunteer efforts to clean up public land through the national Clean Up Australia Day program and Council’s Eco Angel program; • supporting the EPA’s state-wide litter campaign; • compliance activity undertaken by Council Rangers; and • promoting sustainable events on Council land. Specific actions for 2015-16 are described in Section 4 of Appendix 1. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Lake Macquarie | Regional |