The council was forced to act after plans for the compost facility associated with it were rejected.

It decided last week to remove the organics charges covering four months from next March, following Wodonga’s decision to not charge for its new three-bin waste system.

Albury Council decided in July to exclude fees for such a system.

Indigo mayor Barb Murdoch said her council was to have introduced the organics service from March next year for urban areas and at the same time move the weekly red bin service out to fortnightly,” she said.

“However, this will not happen and the kerbside collection service currently in place will now remain unchanged for the whole financial year.”

Cr Murdoch said the council remained committed to “an appropriate” urban kerbside organics collection service.

Victoria was pushing councils to cut the amount of waste going to landfill, she said.

“All councils have ‘towards zero waste’ targets, which include a 65 per cent reduction in the amount of domestic waste we send to landfill by 2016,” she said.

“The council pays for our waste to go to Albury Waste Management Centre’s landfill.

“If we can take food and organic waste out of our red bins, we can remove 44 per cent from landfill immediately.”

Cleanaway is believed to be considering appealing to the NSW Land and Environment Court.