Dubbo residents can now watch what happens to the contents of their green-lid kerbside bin.

Earlier this year, Dubbo Regional Council, Mid-Western Regional Council and Narromine Shire Council received a grant from the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to participate in “Scrap Together”, a community program to educate residents about what can go into their Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) bin.

In the YouTube video, ratepayers can see how green bin contents are transformed into compost at the DROPP (Dubbo Regional Organics Processing Plant).

Workers at the DROPP remove any bad scrap (such as metal, glass and bottles) by hand, and the good scrap (food and garden organics) is shredded into smaller pieces before going into temperature-controlled tunnels.

After 14 days, the organic material leaves the tunnel and is placed in big rows outside for three months, where it continues to break down and is regularly turned, checked and tested to meet Australian composting standards.

Council’s manager of resource recovery and efficiency, John Wisniewski, said from June 2021 to June 2022, 11,454 tonnes of food and garden organics were diverted from landfill and processed into Australian standard compost at the DROPP.

“The process doesn’t end when people put their scraps into the bin and the truck picks it up,” he said.

“At the DROPP people are involved in cleaning garbage out of the food and garden scraps and the material goes through a process that produces a compost product that can be put into gardens or on farms, effectively going full circle.

“That’s what a circular economy is all about.”

The video, titled “Dubbo Regional Council – What happens to kerbside organics”, can be searched online.