Brisbane City Council Green Waste Recycling Expansion Project

Brisbane City Council Green Waste Recycling Expansion Project is a waste diversion project located across the Brisbane metropolitan area in Queensland. Registered in October 2024, the project focuses on expanding the city's green waste management capacity. It aims to roll out approximately 160,000 additional green bins to eligible households, bringing the total number of bins in circulation to over 310,000. The region is a major urban and peri-urban centre characterized by a humid subtropical climate with a mean annual rainfall of approximately 1,150mm. The landscape features diverse soil types, including dark alluvial soils in low-lying areas, red loams (ferrosols) on ridges, and cracking clays (vertosols).

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Source Separated Organic Waste) Methodology Determination 2016. This methodology credits emissions reductions achieved by separating organic material, such as garden organics and food scraps, at the point of generation rather than sending it to a landfill. By diverting this waste to eligible treatment facilities, such as open windrow composting units, the project prevents the generation of methane that would otherwise occur during anaerobic decomposition in a landfill. The organic material is processed into mulch and compost for reuse in city parks and residential gardens.

An interesting aspect of this expansion is its inclusivity; the 2025 rollout explicitly made renters eligible for green bins for the first time, a demographic previously excluded from the service. The initiative is partially supported by the Queensland Government’s "GROW FOGO" funding, designed to harmonize bin lid colours and divert significant organic volumes from landfills. City estimates suggest this specific expansion has the potential to divert between 65,000 and 80,000 tonnes of green waste annually.