Kerbside collection has meant the consumer is one step removed from the traceability chain of their rubbish.

However, recent movements towards "zero" or "low" waste lifestyles mean residents are becoming more conscious of how much waste they produce.

The Launceston Waste Management Centre has evolved from this awareness - with deliberate actions and programs in place to divert away from landfill and focus on reducing, reusing or recycling waste.

City of Launceston waste management officer Michael Attard, who also sits on the Northern Waste Management Group said the centre had put in place many practices to try and divert waste from landfill.

"Through the war on waste, the awareness among consumers has gone through the roof," he said.

"There is a much bigger community awareness around waste but there is still some work to do."

The Launceston Waste Management Centre is different from other landfill waste centres across the state because of its focus on diversion and sorting.

Other landfill sites at places such as Dulverton in the North-West are landfill-only sites and no sorting is done.

Over the past 12 months, the Northern Waste Management Group and the Launceston council have introduced a food and organics waste collection service, dubbed FOGO.

Mr Attard said when it was first introduced, the council had a modest target of a 10 per cent sign up rate for the voluntary service but have since surpassed that goal.

"We've had about a 25 per cent take up in the first 12 months," he said.

Research done prior to establishing the FOGO collection showed better results for a voluntary service rather than mandatory and the results speak for themselves.

"We only have about a 0.9 per cent contamination rate, which is incredible," Mr Attard said.

Contamination of the FOGO collection still included plastic bags and metal and plastic drink containers.

All the FOGO waste has to be sorted through for contamination and is then taken to a separate part of the centre, to undergo its next evolution as waste.

Piles of food waste are bunched together for a 12-week period of composting, during which the food degrades and is mulched.

Once the 12-week cycle is complete, the FOGO compost is used on the City of Launceston's parks and natural reserves, such as City Park and the under-construction Riverbend Park.

"We had a trial with some of the plants at City Park, some which had been fertilised with the FOGO compost and some which hadn't - the one that had been fertilised grew to twice the size," Mr Attard said.

Launceston introduced FOGO kerbside collection last year and since then West Tamar and Central Coast councils have initiated the process for their own municipalities.

Mr Attard said Launceston hoped to "be the regional centre" for FOGO collection and diversion.

It's not only the recycling floor and the FOGO collection that gives the Launceston Waste Management Centre its environmental credibility, but the whole centre has been designed to take advantage of it.

Launceston natural environment officer Michelle Ogulim said the whole centre was designed to look more inviting than just a landfill site, with trees and vegetation planted among the buildings and landfill.

The Uptipity tip shop has also been designed with a green focus in mind: with the shed designed to look more like a shop and less like a warehouse.

"We orientated the building and added the windows around the ceiling line to take advantage of passive solar light, so, there are not many lights here," Ms Ogulim said.

"Part of the design was to make sure it looked and felt more like a shop."

In addition, the landfill section of the centre has methane stacks that help to capture the environmentally harmful gas leaching into the atmosphere.

"Methane is more harmful to the environment than CO2 [carbon dioxide]," Mr Attard said.

The centre has a methane capture system, that harnessing the escaping methane from the landfill site and sends it back to be converted into energy and run through a generator on site. Power from the methane is used to power the site such as on the walking floor, for example, that has a constantly moving conveyor belt. Any excess power is sent back into the grid.

"The power we generate from here can power about 2000 homes in Launceston," Mr Attard said.

Residents who visit the waste management centre are encouraged to visit the recycling facility before entering the landfill site, but not all do, Mr Attard said.

"Cost for dumping items is based off weight so we encourage people to visit the recycling centre before heading in because it could end up costing them less money," he said.

The recycling centre is run in conjunction with other services such as Recycal, who provide an e-waste recycling service for old laptops, computers and electronics.

Mr Attard said devices could be recycled because they were stripped down for the metals inside.

"We shouldn't be putting more holes in the ground [for mines] when we can strip these things and recycle the metals we already have."

Attendants at the centre can also help to take items for resale at the tip shop, as well as things like building and construction material and mattresses.

The Northern Waste Management Group was also able to secure funding to establish a polystyrene recycling and processing machine, which melts the plastic material into hard blocks.

It can then be sent to Victoria to be reused in other items.

The machine was funded through a waste levy paid by taxpayers - so ratepayers can see where their money is going.