A select group of Perth residents will soon be able to throw meat, dairy products, coffee grounds, dog poo and kitty litter into their green waste bins.

The City of Melville, in Perth’s southern suburbs, is trialling the organic recycling program with 7000 residents.

From next week they will be allowed to put all organic waste from their homes into green-lidded bins, which ordinarily only take garden waste like leaves, lawn clippings and small branches.

“It’s going to contain all the organics generated in the household,” Steve Wacher, manager of resource recovery and waste at the City of Melville, told ABC Radio Perth.

“You can put all your fruit and vegetables, meat and bones, seafood, bread, dairy, tea and coffee in that bin as well as weeds, plants, tree prunings, small branches, dog poo, kitty litter.”

60 per cent of all waste organic

The city hopes the trial will lead to far less household waste being sent to landfill.

It will also allow people who don’t wish to have a home compost bin to be more environmentally friendly.

“Sixty per cent of the waste we generate is actually organic, so we are hoping to see an increase in waste diverted from landfill,” Mr Wacher said.

To make it easier for trial participants to separate organic food waste from other rubbish, the city has supplied them with small kitchen bins complete with compostable liners.

“We are trying to make it as easy as possible,” Mr Wacher said.

“We are implementing an education program and we are also going to be doing bin tagging and just informing residents of how to put the right things in the right bin.”

City gardens to benefit

It is hoped the program will create higher quality compost for council parks. Photo: ABC

Currently the contents of the city’s green bins is processed in a facility shared with other councils and a compost that can be used in agriculture is produced.

It is hoped the trial will deliver a superior product.

“This will close the loop a bit and produce better quality compost and will be used in our parks,” Mr Wacher said.

If the trial goes well, the council will consider offering the service to all residents.

“That’s why we are implementing a trial before we go wider, to identify any issues before we roll out en masse,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a big change, but I think as humans we try to resist change. But we’ve had a series of community information nights in Melville and some pretty positive responses.

“A lot of people are excited about doing more for the environment.”

-ABC