You may think you can get away with chucking out a greasy pizza box or a random plastic bag in your yellow bin on the odd occasion.

But in the world of recycling, everything that doesn’t belong can add up, meaning a heavily “contaminated” bin can cause an entire truckload to be sent straight to landfill.

Monash Council says the extra cost is continuing to pile up, prompting it to write to the Prime Minister expressing "extreme disappointment" over the government's decision to abandon national packaging standards, arguing the biggest changes need to happen before plastic reaches the kerbside bin.

The federal government committed in 2023 to national packaging standards, but Environment Minister Murray Watt announced in September that national reforms would not be delivered in this term of government because of concerns about costs to consumers, instead revealing a broader roadmap involving state and federal co-operation.

During a council meeting on September 29, mayor Stuart James and councillor Brian Little moved to write to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressing the council’s “extreme disappointment” over the decision to abandon national packaging standards.

The council also agreed to write to Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt, urging the government to reinstate the planned reforms.

Councillor Little said the easiest way to reduce plastic packaging waste was to simplify how it is produced.

“We are at the end of the chain,” he told the chamber. “We have to deal with all of this plastic that’s being produced.”

The problem extends beyond what residents put in their bins.

If Australia had recycled all the packaging that went to landfill in 2020-21, it could have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about two million tonnes – or the equivalent savings delivered by removing 740,000 cars from the road every year.

The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), a not-for-profit organisation working towards a circular economy, found that around 86 percent of packaging was able to be recycled in 2023/24, but only about 20 percent was actually processed, with about one million tonnes of plastic ending up in landfills or littered each year.

According to a report commissioned by the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR), if the amount of plastic waste sent to landfill is not reduced, it will create cumulative environmental costs of $32 billion by 2050.

In a small attempt at combatting the issues, Monash has moved residential landfill and recycling collections to fortnightly, with food and garden organics collected weekly.

However, contamination continues to be a problem in processing recycling, with the council saying a heavily contaminated bin could cause an entire truckload of recycling or food and garden waste to be sent to landfill. Contaminants could include plastic bags, greasy pizza boxes or single-use coffee cups.

During its 2025 kerbside waste audit, Monash Council found about 160 grams of contaminated plastic ended up in each household’s recycling bins every week. The council also found that 82.73 percent of every kilogram of materials disposed of in recycling bins was recyclable.

ACOR chief executive Suzanne Toumbourou said the cost for making waste less recyclable was being borne by councils and by extension, ratepayers.

“The less recyclable packaging is, the more waste is generated that local governments have to pay for,” she told the Eastern Melburnian. “The material that can’t be recycled costs more to go to landfill. At the moment, brands are putting packaging into the market that is left to local government to clean up, rather than brands being made responsible for supporting the recycling system.”

Read more at the link below:

Or watch the video explainer here:

The state government has approved a housing development of up to 1,100 homes on an 18.8-hectare former quarry and landfill site in Oakleigh South, overriding council and community concerns about environmental risks.

Previously, the site operated as a sand quarry and landfill from the 1950s to the 1990s, with proposals to rezone it for residential development dating back to 2014.

Sterling Global, the property developer behind the project, has proposed a residential community – dubbed Talbot Village – with between 860 and 1,100 dwellings at 1221-1249 Centre Road in Oakleigh South.

The development plan has outlined dwellings would range from two to six storeys, with 10 percent locked off as affordable housing.

As the responsible authority, Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny has approved a planning scheme amendment to rezone the site for development into a residential and mixed-use neighbourhood.

A letter sent out to interested parties also indicated the minister had endorsed the development plan with a number of conditions.

Monash Council said the amendment did not address all of its concerns, including geotechnical and contamination issues, as well as questions over how much public space has been committed to.

In a statement to the Eastern Melburnian, Sterling Global CEO Neil Li said both geotechnical and environmental investigations had been underway since the company acquired the site, adding that under findings from environmental audit no site remediation was required.

"In 2020, an independent environmental audit confirmed the site can be developed for residential sensitive use," said Li. "No site remediation from an environmental aspect was required, subject to appropriate site management measures as conditioned."

Li said the next stage of the project would be ground improvement across the site.

"All works will be carried out under the site management measures set out in the environmental audit and the approved peer-reviewed geotechnical development strategy with ongoing monitoring throughout."

Neighbours for Public Green Space Oakleigh South president, Curt Thompson, said local residents were “disappointed” by the decision, arguing the environmental risks outweighed the benefit of delivering housing.

“The two losers in this are Monash Council and the community,” he told the Eastern Melburnian.

Further planning permits and approvals are required before construction can begin, but the new zoning and development plan are expected to make the project easier to progress.

Read more at the link below:

Question 1: Which famous actor, with popular characters like Dame Edna Everage, born in Kew and raised in Camberwell?

A: Barry Humphries

Question 2: Which renowned Australian painter spent the last years of his life on a five-acre property in Olinda named “Longacres”?

A: Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton

Question 3: What is the name of Belgrave’s cinema, opened in November 1935?

A: Cameo Cinemas

Question 4: What local suburb houses the Australian Jazz Museum?

A: Wantirna

Question 5: Channel 10’s Millionaire Hot Seat recently started shooting in iconic TV studios in which suburb?

A: Nunawading