Bathurst Regional Council has signed a 10-year contract with JR Richards to collect rubbish across the region with a three-bin service now in place.

Along with the weekly general household rubbish collection, the contract also includes the fortnightly collection of recyclables which are taken to JR Richards’ transfer station in Orange and the new weekly collection of green waste which is taken directly to Australian Native Landscapes’ (ANL) composting facility in Blayney.

The introduction of the green waste service drew considerable criticism from sectors of the community but a report to council by acting engineering services director Darren Sturgiss has highlighted the program’s success.

Mr Sturgiss said council had received only a handful of complaints about odour associated with the green waste bins and that the three-bin service had changed the way residents thought about waste.

“With standalone residential properties now having three waste bins, the paradigm around just throwing things out in a single bin has changed again,” he said.

“Despite significant community concern many years ago around the introduction of a recycling collection, this is now well integrated into daily life and generates almost no issues for council, apart from some suggesting that larger households should have a weekly collection.

“A second (or more) bin(s) can be provided in those circumstances, with the property owner able to contact council staff to arrange this.”

Mr Sturgiss said 4187 tonnes of food and garden waste had been diverted from landfill in the first 13 months of the green waste collection service, along with 2856 tonnes of recyclables.

“Avoiding the landfilling of food and garden waste reduces council’s greenhouse gas emissions, and enables waste to be reprocessed into useful compost,” he said. “Any organic matter that is sent to landfill will break down and create methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas, 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.”

He said the green bin service was also helping to extend the remaining life (currently around 40 years) of the Bathurst Waste Management Centre.

The current JR Richards contract is due to expire in April 2026 but two one-year extension options could see it extended until April 2028.