Recycling Victoria: A new economy was released in 2020, is a 10 year policy and action plan setting ambitious targets to reduce waste and key actions to transition Council kerbside services including aligning bin lid colours, standardising materials accepted, introducing food and garden service and introducing separate glass service.

The policy applies the long standing guiding principles of the waste management hierarchy:

It also incorporates the new concept of a circular economy in waste management, where we avoid waste through good design and continually keep resources in the loop as long as possible:

The purpose of the Knox Waste and Resource Strategy 2023 – 2030 is to set a clear direction and vision for the future of waste and resource recovery across Knox. The strategy seeks to strike a balance between the community’s future priorities, regulatory requirements and targets, the need to deliver waste services which are both financially and environmentally sustainable, and navigate the challenges and opportunities facing the sector. It includes goals, aims, targets and high-level commitments for Council and community to drive the future direction of waste and resource management.

It supports delivery of the Knox Council Plan 2021-2025, and Knox Community Plan 2021-2031 goals. In developing the strategy feedback was sought from the community in August 2022 on current and future waste and resource recovery services in Knox.

A detailed and separate Implementation Plan expands on each commitment identified in the Strategy.

Each year we will check the progress for each of the goals and targets, review and refine the tasks if necessary and report on our progress to the community.

The waste sector faces complex challenges, but they also provide opportunities to change how we have been operating.
This includes:

• Landfill capacity in Melbourne's southeast is expected to reach capacity within 5 years. We need to investigate options on how to best to manage this waste stream.
• Implementing kerbside reforms in Knox
• Contamination of resource streams poses a hazard, impacts quality of recycled products or compost, and in some instances has financial impacts.
• Financial considerations such as increased costs to transport, process and dispose of waste and resources.
• Climate change considerations

Snapshot of waste services from 2022/23:

• 27,804 tonnes rubbish
• 13,963 tonnes recycling
• 17,545 tonnes garden waste
• 3,018 tonnes bundled branches own containers
• 31,565 hard waste collections
• Over 135,200 public litter bin and recycling collections