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).
Suggested search terms
Hold Ctrl to select multiple terms. Using ‘any words’ functions as an “OR” search. Using ‘all words’ functions as and “AND” search.
Search Criteria:
| Document title | Relevant text in the policy | Domain | Topic | State | Local Government name | Council type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WASTE AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY 2030 | the ideal future state circular economy this strategy aims to achieve, including an increased focus on waste collection, recycling and recovery, as well as organic recycling. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Melbourne | Metropolitan |
| WASTE AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY 2030 | The introduction of an organic stream has been trialled successfully in Council House 2 and can be expanded on to ensure all buildings operated by the City of Melbourne have systems to segregate organics and recyclables. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Melbourne | Metropolitan |
| WASTE AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY 2030 | They will be able to support our advocacy efforts and campaigns on education, investment and product stewardship. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Melbourne | Metropolitan |
| WASTE AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY 2030 | To support improved recycling behaviours, besides education campaigns, the City of Melbourne could investigate introducing penalties for compliance, | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Melbourne | Metropolitan |
| WASTE AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY 2030 | Transform the collection and transfer of recycling and residual waste | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Melbourne | Metropolitan |
| WASTE AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY 2030 | we may procure from businesses that show leadership in waste avoidance, reduction and reuse (such as single-use plastics and food waste) | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Melbourne | Metropolitan |
| WASTE AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY 2030 | We will capture and recycle organic waste. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Melbourne | Metropolitan |
| WASTE AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY 2030 | We will review our procurement practices with a view to incorporating circular procurement principles. For example, we may procure from businesses that show leadership in waste avoidance, reduction and reuse (such as single-use plastics and food waste). | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Melbourne | Metropolitan |
| WASTE AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY 2030 | we will work with food retail and hospitality businesses to find ways to avoid, reuse and recycling waste, particularly food and plastic waste. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Melbourne | Metropolitan |
| WASTE AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY 2030 | We will work with food retail and hospitality businesses to understand barriers and opportunities for food waste avoidance, reuse and recycling. This may tie in with the hubs network expansion, as well as our incentive program and innovation fund. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Melbourne | Metropolitan |
| WASTE AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY 2030 | Working with council to reduce problem materials such as plastic and food waste. For example this may include education campaigns or local laws to reduce or recover food waste or single-use plastics. Getting involved in innovative projects funded through the innovation fund, such as plastic alternatives. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Melbourne | Metropolitan |
| Waste Free Events | That Willoughby City Council undertakes to ensure that all public events, such as Spring Festivals and Family Picnics, are planned, promoted and managed as "Waste Free" events. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Willoughby | Metropolitan |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | Training and education would be provided to participating households to maximise the likelihood of composting and worm farming being undertaking correctly and not becoming anaerobic | Health and Wellbeing | Education/events on food system issues | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | • Implementing a kerbside collection for household garden and food waste The business case for each of these options is discussed further below. | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | A number of options for decreasing the amount of waste generation and/or increasing the amount of recycling through the kerbside system are considered as part of this strategy, including: • Reducing the bin size for residual waste • Encouraging the use of compost bins and worm farms for food and garden waste | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | A number of options for decreasing the amount of waste generation and/or increasing the amount of recycling through the kerbside system have been considered as part of this strategy. These have included: • Reducing the bin size for residual waste from 120 litres to 80 litres • Increasing the size of the recycling bin from 240 litres to 360 litres • Encouraging the use of compost bins and worm farms for food and garden waste | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | Option 3: Encouraging the use of compost bins and worm farms for food and garden waste Reducing the amount of food waste sent to landfill has dual benefits in reducing costs (based on the current bin audit data food and garden waste make up 36% of household waste sent to landfill) and reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with the decomposition of this organic waste material in landfill14 . Without a kerbside collection service for household food and garden waste one option is to encourage home composting and/or worm farming of these materials. Council can encourage this activity by providing rebates for compost bins and worm farms and exploring opportunities for bulk procurement. | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | Promote home composting and worm farming of food and garden waste | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | promote home composting and worm farming of food and garden waste for households that have a kerbside service through either a rebate or council bulk purchasing | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | Promote home composting and worm farming of food and garden waste for households that have a kerbside service through either a rebate or council bulk purchasing | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | Strategy Objective Reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with Council’s waste management activities Proposed Option Option 2: Increasing the size of the recycling bin from 240 litres to 360 litres Option 3: Encouraging the use of compost bins and worm farms for food and garden waste Option 6: Implementing a kerbside collection for household garden and food waste | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | Training and education would be provided to participating households to maximise the likelihood of composting and worm farming being undertaking correctly and not becoming anaerobic | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | • Encourage a plastic bag and plastic bottle free policy in the Shire | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | • Implementing a kerbside collection for household garden and food waste The business case for each of these options is discussed further below. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | A number of options for decreasing the amount of waste generation and/or increasing the amount of recycling through the kerbside system are considered as part of this strategy, including: • Reducing the bin size for residual waste • Encouraging the use of compost bins and worm farms for food and garden waste • Getting more recyclables into the recycling bin • Extending the kerbside collection system to the more households • Implementing a kerbside collection for household garden and food waste | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | A number of options for decreasing the amount of waste generation and/or increasing the amount of recycling through the kerbside system have been considered as part of this strategy. These have included: • Reducing the bin size for residual waste from 120 litres to 80 litres • Increasing the size of the recycling bin from 240 litres to 360 litres • Encouraging the use of compost bins and worm farms for food and garden waste | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | Further investigate the possibility of implementing a food waste avoidance program | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | Option 3: Encouraging the use of compost bins and worm farms for food and garden waste Reducing the amount of food waste sent to landfill has dual benefits in reducing costs (based on the current bin audit data food and garden waste make up 36% of household waste sent to landfill) and reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with the decomposition of this organic waste material in landfill14 . Without a kerbside collection service for household food and garden waste one option is to encourage home composting and/or worm farming of these materials. Council can encourage this activity by providing rebates for compost bins and worm farms and exploring opportunities for bulk procurement. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | Option 6: Implementing a kerbside collection for household garden and food waste Organic waste in the form of food and garden waste form a significant component of the kerbside waste stream and can be turned into useful products such as compost or energy if they are collected separately. The option of introducing a third bin for household organic waste for the major towns that currently have a kerbside residual waste service has been considered. Each of these households would be provided with a new 240 litre bin which would be collected fortnightly for organic waste. A kitchen caddy with compostable bags would also be provided to each household to assist with managing food waste from the kitchen area. Based on the current data 36% of the kerbside waste stream is organics. Assuming that 75% of this is diverted to the new organics bin a reduction in waste to landfill of around 540 tpa could be expected. Other key assumptions in assessing this option are that the residual waste collection is moved from weekly to fortnightly and that the cost of processing the collected organics material is less that current landfill costs20 . Preliminary cost modelling of this option indicates a separate organics collection service could be introduced for around an additional cost of $25-30 per household per year. The low percentage of garden waste that appears to be in the kerbside waste stream means that it would not be effective to introduce a third bin for garden waste only. A key constraint to the implementation of this option is that there is no current processor identified that could take the combined food and garden waste material and process it into a useful product. The cities of Ballarat and Bendigo are currently investigating the possibility of jointly tending for processing kerbside organics, with the tender likely to be released in the first half of 2014. Given the quantity of organic material from these cities is substantially greater than HSC it would seem prudent to wait and see if this tender identifies a feasible option for organics processing that HSC could subsequently join. This also provides time for further analysis of the organics composition in the kerbside residual waste to confirm the potential benefits of this option. As an alternative the establishment of a dedicated facility by council was considered, however this appears to be more expensive with preliminary costing estimates indicating this would cost around an additional $45-50 per household per year. It has therefore not been considered any further. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |
| Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy | Promote home composting and worm farming of food and garden waste | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Hepburn | Regional |