Thorndon Park Estate

Case Study WRSA Thorndon Park Estate

Committed residents of Thorndon Park Estate, with the support of Estate Management, Waste Reduction SA, and City of Campbelltown, have achieved close to 80% diversion of all waste for composting or recycling, and with far fewer bins presented in the limited space on the street.

8 waste bins containing landfill only from 50 units at Thorndon Park Estate ready for collection. Residents united to change their waste/recycling/organics disposal habits.

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‘Being a staged development, Thorndon Park Estate has evolved from a village of 9 units 8
years ago in 2012 to 50 units today. As the village grew, it became apparent that to minimise
the number of bins on the street corner every week, we needed to get smart with our waste.
Thanks largely to some passionate and committed residents, so began the journey to keep our
waste to a minimum and be more mindful of what rubbish goes in which bin. Whether through
the introduction of a larger 240L waste bin used by a cluster of units in lieu of individual waste
bins going out each week, recycling cans and bottles and more recently wine bottles, or using
caddies for food scraps to go in the green bin, the residents of the village have “bought in” to the
importance of minimising waste and doing our bit for the environment. However, it is an ongoing
journey and we are always looking at ways we can improve and do more.’
Tony Mercorella, Manager
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Background

Graham and Christine Douglass moved into Thorndon Park Estate 3 years ago, attracted by the lovely setting and active and connected community, which reflects the family who cared for the property for over 50 years as a fertile market garden, and who now proudly manage the estate.
As the Estate grew there were too many bins to present at the limited kerbside space and many without much in them, so Graham and friends began decanting them to reduce the number of bins. Graham also saw a need for some education and called upon Waste Educator, Kathy Scarborough, to give a recycling presentation to residents. This is what happened next!

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Shared Bins

Kathy said a firm ‘no’ to decanting bins because of the risk of injury and it ultimately being
unsustainable. Instead residents share waste and organics bins for each street, and some leave
their bagged waste out the front of their homes for the bin helpers to pick up as they take the
bins out to the kerbside.

Each residence still has their allocated waste and recycling bins (numbered) as this is a
requirement if a property is sold but an additional 240L waste bin, servicing 11 households,
showed the value of a community sharing a larger bin. Now the Estate has four x 240L shared
bins in total and only 6 to 10 waste bins are presented for kerbside collection every week,
resulting in less lifts for the waste truck and saving emissions.

Recycling bins are not shared but residents only present them for collection when they are full to reduce numbers. They average 75-80% full, are put out every 4 to 6 weeks and instead of 50, about 25 bins are presented at kerbside each fortnight.
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Food Diversion

At the presentation Kathy stressed the importance of disposing all food waste in green organics
bins and Christine immediately set up a collection in the Clubhouse kitchen for event food and
compostable paper waste. Residents purchased food caddies from City of Campbelltown at the
subsidised cost of $5, also receiving a free roll of compostable bags and education materials.
This engaged community, working together to achieve the best outcomes by ‘doing the right
thing’, embraced the food caddy system, but there was some trouble shooting to be done!

As the Estate grew the number of green bins increased but residents have small gardens so
while there are some trimmings to dispose, there are also loads of food bags, creating moisture
and making bins heavy and smelly. Odours needed to be managed so that residents were not
deterred from disposing food and Graham found that lining each bin with 8 sheets of loose
newspaper, spraying with an earth-friendly disinfectant, and a regular clean helped to manage
odour issues. Residents double compostable bag their food waste during hot spells, reducing
moisture in the bin, and Graham is looking for a way to ventilate bins as another solution.

Shared green bins are changed after a week so that when presented at kerbside they are
manageable. On average they are 80% full and weigh a whopping 33kg!

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Wine bottles, drink containers and other commodities

Kathy promotes better outcomes for glass recycling as wine bottles are smashed in kerbside collections, resulting in a low-quality product. A tub for wine and champagne bottles has joined waste and green bins at the end of each street and Graham takes about 170 bottles to Newton
Recycling every month for recycling into new bottles at AMCOR, Gawler, closing the loop! 10 cent drink containers are collected at the Club House and taken to the recyclers by Alex, another resident, raising $270 in 8 months for the Estate’s Christmas celebration.

TPE have recently set up a collection for E-waste in a 140L bin, taking anything from mobile phones to printers and residents have filled the bin twice in two months. It is taken to the ‘Unplug and Drop’ bin at Bunnings and responsibly recycled by Electronics Recycling Australia,
an initiative of Minda which provides sustainable employment to people living with a disability. There are also collections for used batteries and globes which are taken by maintenance to the Campbelltown Works Depot drop off facility for recycling.
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A special note on community support

Thorndon Park Estate management are always available for discussion and quick to respond to
resident’s needs. They support the waste management initiative and want to see it replicated foran adjacent retirement estate. In addition –

– City of Campbelltown’s Environment and Sustainability team have supported with advice and provided calendars to each household, stickers for green and yellow bins, and now this case study to share and encourage other residential estates to replicate this model.

– Council’s waste contractor, East Waste assisted with the provision of a 240L waste bin to trial and presentation options for bins at kerbside.

– WRSA’s Kathy has been on hand along the way and, with assistance from Graham and
her flatbed scales, weighed and recorded volumes for all bin streams to calculate how
much this community captures for diversion from landfill for composting and recycling.
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