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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | In the Bega Valley we will contribute to the achievement of regional targets by delivering: • A kerbside organics service that has expanded to include food waste (FOGO). | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | INITIATIVE 1A. GUIDE THE COMMUNITY IN REDUCING FOOD WASTE Council will actively support programs in our region to deliver programs such as Love Food, Hate Waste, and other programs such as OzHarvest designed to reduce food being thrown away by the community or businesses. Waste streams targeted: Food waste within domestic and commercial waste streams. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | INITIATIVE 1C. SUPPORT REDUCTION IN SINGLE-USE PLASTICS In June 2018, Bega Valley Shire Council unanimously agreed to phase out single use plastics at all Council venues and events. Over the next 12 months Council will establish event guidelines that remove single use plastic cutlery, crockery and other unnecessarily wasteful products from events for which Council is organiser, or Council provides material support for through the Community Grants or Waste Grants Programme. Waste streams targeted: Single-use plastics. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | INITIATIVE 2A. INTRODUCE A KERBSIDE FOGO SERVICE The strategic benefits of diverting organic waste from landfill are significant and include: • Preserve valuable landfill void space. • Reduce generation of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from landfill. • Return valuable organic carbon to the soil via compost produced. The FOGO (Food Organics Garden Organics) initiative replaces the four-weekly garden organics (green bin) kerbside service with a weekly service. Collected kerbside FOGO will be composted at the Merimbula facility initially with consideration given to co-locating with other resource recovery activities at a dedicated facility in the longer term. Council will first concentrate on delivering a kerbside FOGO service to households, ensuring processing and product quality is achieved. Council will then work with the commercial sector to establish appropriate pretreatment and collection services, and improved source separation. Waste streams targeted: Food waste from domestic and commercial waste streams. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | INITIATIVE 2C. REDUCE COMMERCIAL WASTE Reducing the significant organic component of landfilled waste from commercial sources including restaurants, supermarkets, cafés and clubs is a high priority; however the standard kerbside FOGO service is unlikely to be suitable for many businesses. Council will engage directly with business to identify services that are suitable to meet the differing needs of commercial waste generators. Council will review its waste fees and charges and revenue policy with a view to encouraging greater separation of commercial waste before disposal. Waste streams targeted: Commercial kerbside waste streams and food industry businesses serviced by commercial contractors. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | INITIATIVE 2F. DELIVER A COMMUNITY WASTE AWARENESS AND EDUCATION PROGRAM This program will build awareness among domestic and business communities of local waste and recycling issues and initiatives, and encourage maximum source separation of waste streams. It will deliver balanced elements of awareness, encouragement and compliance. The program will focus on the local opportunities, including the many facets of long-term sustainability. It will deliver awareness in a manner which is ‘fun about a serious subject’ and be built on an ‘I’m responsible for producing my own waste’ theme. The beneficial outcomes and consequences of this new Strategy will underpin the Community Waste Awareness and Education Program. The overall message will convey that the new Strategy has been developed to ensure the Bega Valley community is willing and able to tackle the difficult issues and lead the way with longterm, sustainable waste management. A range of media platforms are proposed including print, radio, Facebook and the free Bega Waste APP. The community will be well informed about the reasons and the benefits associated with strategic Initiatives. The program will be developed with recognition of established strategic links with the CRJO and neighbouring LGAs such as Eurobodalla, Snowy Monaro and East Gippsland. Specific actions will identify and encourage the uptake of changed behaviours by all sections of the community, led by self-appointed ‘Waste Warriors’ who are encouraged and supported by Council, businesses and residents. Specific actions will be structured to encourage community feedback with interactive components available to enable Council to continually engage with the community. For example, presenting individual stories and continually updating recycling and waste diversion information to affirm success of the community’s actions. The program will target specific sections of the community, including: Commercial/Business Sector: Council will invite businesses to be involved in long-term waste management through initiatives outlined in the new Strategy. Council will ensure businesses are aware of how the new Strategy impacts on them including: • Waste management services with a clearer and more sustainable user-pays system that favours recycling over landfill. • Changes to Council’s waste disposal fees and charges policy. • Changes to drop-off locations for specific waste types. • Support for source-separated recycling initiatives. • Changes to other policy such as use of public place bins within proximity to businesses outlets. • Planned waste audits and compliance measures. Council will encourage a branded merit system for businesses demonstrating improved recycling behaviours including approved public-facing branding such as as ‘Waste Champions’ OR ‘Waste Warriors’. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | INITIATIVE 5A. SUPPORT THE NSW CONTAINER DEPOSIT SCHEME Council will take a leadership role in the broader Joint Organisation region, ensuring refund entitlements from eligible container packaging delivered to sorting facilities from kerbside recycling collections are rightfully refunded to Council to offset service delivery costs. Waste streams targeted: Domestic and commercial. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | Kerbside Services: Council will develop clear branding of kerbside services as a principal component of encouraging behaviour change. Industry euphemisms and acronyms will be removed from all written and verbal communications to drive greater community awareness of the fate of each kerbside bins’ contents: • The residual waste bin will be branded as the Landfill (Red) Bin. • The co-mingled recycling bin will be branded as the Recyling (Yellow) Bin. • The organics bin will be branded as the Compost (green) Bin. As we introduce FOGO we will also refer to it as the FOGO bin. • Composted organics will also be branded to support identification, ownership and uptake of the product. Value-added initiatives such as bagging and marketing compost through Tulgeen Disability Services for small home and holiday accommodation customers will widen the target market and increase commercial returns. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | Phase out single use plastics from Council and community events. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | Providing a weekly FOGO service. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | Reduce single use plastics in our community, support product stewardship schemes and increase local use of recycled materials to support the “circular economy” | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | Schools: Council will continue its work with local schools to promote the objectives of the new Strategy, focussing on: • Working with the Bournda Environmental Education Centre to deliver in-school waste education in government schools. • Supplying in-kind recycling services to schools linked with delivery of targeted in-school waste education programmes. • Supply and support services for school-based organics management (worm farming/composting of food wastes). | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | The new Strategy will deliver: • A kerbside organics service expanded to include food waste (FOGO) which will be gradually rolled out to the commercial sector. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY STRATEGY | To support community education Council will: • Develop a broader, more encompassing event management policy applicable across all of its service areas to standardise requirements for waste management in public places and at events. Policy will include bin requirements and the strict use of re-usable or compostable crockery and cutlery at all events that Council supports. Single use plastics will not be permitted. • Review the strategic location and branding of public place bins. Public bins in areas more frequented by tourists will be increased and will include targeted branding that promotes the shire’s Waste Less, Reuse and Recycle More policy. • Introduce the Council Green Team at events to stand near bin banks and encourage correct use of waste, recycling and organics bins. • Include Council’s Tourism Sub-committee, Tourist Information and other service units (such as Parks and Gardens) in initiatives and actions to increase recycling and diversion of waste from landfill. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Bega | Regional |
| Waste Management for Multi-Unit Developments | Waste management systems in multi-unit developments may require ongoing management, especially those with communal waste storage areas. This could include employing a caretaker or building manager for: cleaning bins and keeping waste storage areas tidy managing the transfer of bins from the bin storage area to the collection point regular monitoring of recycling and organics bins and educating tenants on how to use these services | Health and Wellbeing | Education/events on food system issues | NSW | Ballina | Regional |
| Waste Management for Multi-Unit Developments | Organic bins are available on request with the number depending on the amount of organic waste generated on the premises. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Ballina | Regional |
| Waste Management for Multi-Unit Developments | Organics in 1 x 240L MGB collected once weekly | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Ballina | Regional |
| Waste Management for Multi-Unit Developments | This policy is designed to assist in addressing the management of solid waste from multi-unit developments (MUD). Waste management arrangements for multi-unit developments within Ballina Shire incorporate the following kerbside collections: waste services to manage domestic, commercial and industrial waste co-mingled recycling services to manage recyclables organic services to manage garden and food organics. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Ballina | Regional |
| Waste Management for Multi-Unit Developments | Upon request Council can also provide a MGB kerbside collection service to commercial and industrial developments for mixed waste, co-mingled recyclables and organic material. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Ballina | Regional |
| Waste Management for Multi-Unit Developments | Waste management systems in multi-unit developments may require ongoing management, especially those with communal waste storage areas. This could include employing a caretaker or building manager for: cleaning bins and keeping waste storage areas tidy managing the transfer of bins from the bin storage area to the collection point regular monitoring of recycling and organics bins and educating tenants on how to use these services | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Ballina | Regional |
| Waste Management for Multi-Unit Developments | Where commercial or industrial developments involve the storage and handling of putrescible or food waste, the waste storage area must be appropriately roofed and connected to the sewer. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | NSW | Ballina | Regional |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES | REUSE Please reuse items where possible. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Stonnington | Metropolitan |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES | To responsibly manage waste at events Council requires that all stallholders support the following measures to reduce waste and improve waste management. Council has now committed to excluding the use of single use, light-weight plastic bags at Council events and activities. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Stonnington | Metropolitan |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES | USE PACKAGING MADE FROM RECYCLED MATERIALS Food and drink packaging, and other paper products, are readily available in 100% recycled paper. High quality recycled serviettes are economical and can replace plates when serving items such as sausages. Use paper bags (preferably 100% recycled) rather than plastic bags. Biodegradable plastic bags are also acceptable. AVOID UNNECESSARY ITEMS Please avoid using the following items as they cannot be recycled, or contain unnecessary packaging; Polystyrene cups and clamshells Coffee/drinking cup covers Balloons Excessive amounts of paper/cardboard Plastic drinking straws wrapped in paper Single serve sugar straws Single serve tomato sauce/condiments Wooden stirrers/wooden and bamboo cutlery | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Stonnington | Metropolitan |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES | USE PACKAGING THAT CAN BE RECYCLED Use packaging that is made from recyclable materials such as aluminium and steel cans, glass bottles, and plastic drink and hard plastic food containers. Soft plastics and polystyrene products are not recyclable through the event recycling bins even though they may have the recycling symbols and numbers on them. Many food and drink containers (e.g. cardboard coffee cups) can now be recycled. Ask your suppliers if their products are recyclable. Biodegradable/compostable/degradable cups and containers and bamboo packaging cannot be recycled through the recycling service provided by this event. While biodegradable/compostable/degradable materials are a positive step to reducing landfill waste and recovering resources, they require specific infrastructure to process this material which Council currently doesn’t have access to. You can recycle your flattened (unwaxed) cardboard boxes by placing them next to the recycling stations at the end of the day. Please note that waxed boxes cannot be recycled. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Stonnington | Metropolitan |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT IN MULTI-UNIT DEVELOPMENTS | Waste reduction strategies Plans should outline how residents will be encouraged to recycle materials and avoid and reduce waste disposal, ie. composting food waste, garden organics, etc. | Planning Frameworks | Modify housing/property designs to ensure adequate food storage/preparation areas | Victoria | Knox | Metropolitan |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT IN MULTI-UNIT DEVELOPMENTS | Waste reduction strategies Plans should outline how residents will be encouraged to recycle materials and avoid and reduce waste disposal, ie. composting food waste, garden organics, etc. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Knox | Metropolitan |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN 2014 – 2021 | Provide initial and ongoing funding from savings in processing costs for reduction in green organics collected for intensive marketing and promotions campaigns aimed at encouraging home composting and/or on-site treatment of organic material. | Health and Wellbeing | Education/events on food system issues | Victoria | Knox | Metropolitan |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN 2014 – 2021 | Provide initial and ongoing funding from savings in processing costs for reduction in green organics collected for intensive marketing and promotions campaigns aimed at encouraging home composting and/or on-site treatment of organic material. | Sustainability and Environment | Home and community gardening | Victoria | Knox | Metropolitan |
| WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN 2014 – 2021 | Bin types, sizes and frequency of collection will need to be changed for food organics processing. | Food Waste | Food losses and food waste | Victoria | Knox | Metropolitan |