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The pilot in Ballarat is now rolling out with the special orange bags able to be placed in the yellow-lid recycling bin from July 2024. 

Unfortunately if you do not live within the City of Ballarat municipality, or other participating municipalities, you are unable to take part in the pilot at the moment. 

This will change as we learn how to best collect and recycle soft plastics at scale.. It’s important we get things right and don’t overload the system during this time.  

Soft plastics are ‘scrunchable’ plastics. We want all your clean, dry soft plastics such as bread bags, confectionary wrappers and dog food bags, placed into the specially designed orange bag, then popped into your yellow lid kerbside bin. Be sure to keep placing your other recyclables loose in your bin as you’ve always done.

Yes, you can. 

During the pilot, the City of Ballarat will invite you to complete some surveys. We look forward to hearing your views on how we can improve the program.

The people and machines at your local recycling facility cannot sort thousands of bits of loose soft plastics, it’s much easier for soft plastics to be contained in a clearly identified supplied orange bag. 

The bag is designed to work perfectly in the facilities, so they can easily identify, sort and recycle them. This is the only bag they will accept, keep your soft plastics in the bag and your other recyclables loose in your bin.

We expect a portfolio of recyclers and products from the collected plastics, including mechanical and chemical recycling options. Advanced chemical recycling breaks plastic down into oil that can be used to make food-grade soft plastic packaging, reducing the use of virgin materials, and creating a truly circular soft plastic supply chain. Other products also in scope with our partner companies include mechanically recycled products such as the orange bags, garbage bags, fence posts, asphalt, and concrete additives.

There are lots of reasons. Full bags are easier to sort at the recycling facility, they are more efficient by using less plastic, less bags means lower costs and lower environmental impact. So, put your special bag out when it’s full and tight like a basketball, not necessarily every bin cycle. Each bag can hold up to 1kg of soft plastic!

Throughout the pilot, councils, recyclers, brands, governments and all our partners will be collecting data and information on what works and what can be improved to inform the next phase to grow the program.  

You can contribute via surveys from the City of Ballarat during the pilot phase. All this valuable information will help create the best national roll-out plan for recycling of soft-plastics.

We have tried to make your recycling as easy and low cost as possible and we want this to work for a more sustainable future. The orange bag collection can help you save space in your general household waste bin. Reducing the amount of waste going to landfill will help limit future increases in waste charges.

The program is being set up by the Australian Food and Grocery Council, in conjunction with a range of stakeholders including retailers and brand owners. The scheme was designed leveraging global best practice including taking insights from Europe, and has utilised funding from industry and the Australian Government.

The new orange bags are made locally by Fasa Plastics in Melbourne from 100% recycled Australian plastics. The sorting and recycling activities are carried out by a range of our partners including APR in Melbourne, Cleanaway in Albury, and CAWRA in Adelaide, as well as Close the Loop in Melbourne and IQRenew in Taree.  The plastics will be processed into flake, pellets or building substitutes, as well as into oil for renewed plastics by entities such as Viva in Geelong. All councils and companies involved in the pilot are collaborating with agreements in place. 

A Product Stewardship Scheme aims to address a market failure by producers (in this instance the owners of the branded products that use soft plastic packaging) paying the true cost of the packaging they manufacture and put on market, ensuring it gets recycled and does not end up as plastic pollution or waste. Producers pay a levy to a Product Stewardship Scheme administrator who coordinates and funds the scheme to undertake collection, recycling, marketing and other activities.

A person must not conduct fireworks displays or otherwise ignite fireworks without a permit and only licensed pyrotechnicians may be issued a permit. This permit process may take up to three months and involves City of Ballarat as well as several state government departments.

Only registered and licensed food vendors can sell and/or provide food to the public. This includes food businesses and community groups that sell food from a temporary site, such as a stall, van, trailer, community hall, or vending machine, sausage sizzles, fete cake stalls, and other small food arrangements. Food businesses must maintain an existing Victorian Food Act registration and lodge a statement of trade (SOT) to let all relevant councils know where and when they will be trading. This must be done online though the Foodtrader website.

As an event organiser you will need to tell us the vendors that will be serving food and drinks at your event. To help your vendors in lodging a Statement of Trade we have a Food Vendors and Event Organisers Guide with helpful advice.

If you have food and/or food vendors at your event, we recommend talking with our Environmental Health team well before the start of your event. Our Environmental Health team can be contacted on 5320 5702.

Any event that intends to serve/sell alcohol must apply for a liquor licence from the Department of Justice.

Clubs or organisations that currently hold a permit to serve alcohol may need an extension to their licence if they are serving outside of their existing permit. This may include serving outside their club rooms, to non-members and/or outside their normal hours of operation.

Events will also need a permit from our Environmental Health team (see 'serving or providing food' above).

For further information visit the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation's website.

Community Local Law 2017 restricts the use of amplified equipment unless a permit for it has been issued. For large events an approved Noise Management Plan may be needed to lessen impact on surrounding occupants and residents.

For advice and more information contact our Environmental Health team on 5320 5702.

For large music events, compliance with the State Environment Protection Policy (Control of Music Noise from Public Premises) is needed.

Please see the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website for more information.

Animal farms and jumping castles require a Local Laws Event permit, even if they offer free entry. If they are part of a larger Event, they can be included in the Event Permit.

Each of the following temporary structures will need an Occupancy (temporary building) Permit;

• grandstand style tiered/bank seating with more than 20 seats
• marquees or prefabricated buildings with a floor area greater than 100m2
• stages or platforms exceeding 150m2.

Generally, the hire company supplying these large structure(s) will apply for the Occupancy Permit, but you should check in and make sure that they do so.

Please note: you cannot use tent pegs, fencing, or other forms of spikes on nearly all public land. Contact the relevant venue manager for more information.

If an event is charging admission and/or is held in an area that is enclosed or substantially enclosed, it may require a Place of Public Entertainment (PoPE) permit.
 
This permit application process can be quite detailed, and it is recommended that if your event requires a PoPE, contact our Building Department should be contacted on 5320 5563. 

Any event such as running, walking, or cycling needing to manage traffic must have a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) from the City of Ballarat. It is strongly recommended that you engage  an accredited traffic management company to design a Traffic Management Plan (TMP), which will form the basis of the MOA documentation. Furthermore, an MOA from VicRoads may also be needed if events are undertaken on an arterial road.

For more information contact our Asset Management team on 5320 5500.

Where an event does not need road closure(s) but may present a risk to traffic and/or pedestrians, or otherwise impacts on the normal road and car parking use, a TMP must be written to show how the risk(s) will be limited Detailing location of signage and devices, pavement markings, barriers, arrow boards  and/or variable message signage and roadwork speed zones. 

If you intend to place promotional or advertising signs before or during your event, you will need a permit. This also includes the display of goods, whether for promotion or sale.

Every event should aim to provide enough toilets. For small events, public toilets may be suitable but larger events usually need to hire additional portable toilet units.

Depending on the number of people present at any time (and whether the event is licensed) will decide how many toilets will be needed. The number of persons should include the general public, participants, contractors, vendors, and the event employees.

The general rule for non-licensed events is:

• One closet fixture for every 200 female patrons or part thereof.
• One closet fixture or urinal for every 200 male patrons or part thereof, at least 30% of which must be closet fixtures.
• One wheelchair accessible toilet is needed for every 100 closet fixtures or part thereof. The wheelchair accessible toilet can be either one unisex unit, or one male and one female closet fixture where facilities for males and females are provided separately.

Every event conducted on public land must hold current public liability insurance to the value of at least $20 million. A copy of your current Public Liability Certificate of Currency will need to be submitted with your event application. Additional insurance certificates may be required if your event incorporates electronic rides, petting zoos, jumping castles etc. 

It is recommended that one drinking water fountain/tap be provided for every 200 persons. Drinking water may also be provided at food and bar outlets.

Event organisers will need to manage waste generated from their event. It is generally not appropriate to rely on street bins for this. Also consider recycling bins and what your event can do to reduce waste.

The City of Ballarat may be able to provide additional bins for your event (charges may be incurred). In Ballarat, there are also two great contractors who can help with waste management. You can contact Suez Ballarat on 13 13 35 or Cleanaway Ballarat on 4334 3700 to arrange rubbish management for your event.

If you have questions about waste management and your event, please contact our Customer Service team on 5320 5500 and ask to chat with our Environment team. 

Any gas cylinders used at your event must comply with AS 1596-1989 and AG601-1995 regulations, and should be checked and approved before to your event by Energy Safe Victoria.

Visit the Energy Safe Victoria website for more information.

All reasonable care should be taken to ensure your event is safe for all involved. This includes event staff, volunteers, performers, the audience, and the public in surrounding areas.

There are resources online to help event managers plan safe events. Visit Work Safe Victoria for more information.

Authorised Officers may need to enter your event to ensure all permit requirements are being met. If you have any specific considerations about this, they should be outlined in your event application, this may include the provision of entry/security passes.