Local government’s peak body is calling for budget funding for standardised kerbside bins across Australia, saying this will help reduce 31 Sydney Opera Houses worth of landfill a year.

ALGA’s 2024-25 Budget submission calls for $120 million over four years to standardise kerbside bins and implement a national education campaign.

Confusion around which waste can be recycled and which kerbside bin should be used is a barrier to reducing landfill, president Linda Scott says.

NSW, Victoria and the ACT already currently have standardised kerbside bins, but a new federal program is needed to help councils in other states follow suit in a nationally consistent way, Cr Scott says,

 “Standardising bin lids across the entire country would allow us to run a national education campaign that would give Australians the information they need to make informed decisions about what they put in their bins,” she said in a statement.

 Local councils manage around 25 per cent of Australia’s waste and collecting around 9.7 mega tonnes per year from kerbside bin services, with the sorted at recovery facilities and sent to recycling facilities.

Local government is also working with the Federal Government to strengthen product stewardship.

The federal budget will be handed down on May 14.