Yarra Ranges Shire Council says a state Coalition pledge to force councils into weekly rubbish removal could lead to cuts to other services.
In a statement released on Monday August 10, Opposition leader Jess Wilson said if elected in November, a Coalition government would direct all Victorian councils to collect general rubbish bins weekly.
Wilson also announced a Coalition government would review the state’s landfill levy and place council waste charges under the existing 2.75 percent rate cap.
🚛 Bin backlash: Yarra Ranges councillor Jim Child said the implications of the policy would be “very serious” and the council needed to start mulling over the impacts now.
🗣️ “We may have to consider cutting a service to collect the red lid bin every week,” he told the Eastern Melburnian. “We’ve got a tremendous task ahead of us if we have to reintroduce collecting that bin every week.”
Yarra Ranges council director of planning and sustainable futures Kath McClusky said the council is “extremely concerned” about the impact this proposed change would have – including an increase on annual waste collection costs of up to about $3 million.
What’s the catch? Reverting to weekly collections would raise costs for councils, but the rate cap would limit how quickly those costs could be passed on to households, leaving a question mark over who absorbs the gap.
🗓️ Local reversals: More than 30 councils across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria have moved general (red lid) rubbish collection to fortnightly, while adding weekly food and organics collection, including Boroondara, Knox, Monash, Manningham and Yarra Ranges.
The move is designed to reduce the amount of food waste ending up in landfill by turning it into compost instead.
Food waste in landfill is a major source of methane emissions.
However, Maroondah and Whitehorse councils still provide weekly general rubbish collection.
♻️ Waste setbacks: Boroondara mayor Wes Gault said bringing back a weekly collection would cost at least $3 million in additional funding. It already spends about $9 million a year on red bin waste collection.
He said returning to a weekly pickup would risk reversing positive steps in reducing material from entering landfill via its food and garden organics collection.
“Currently, 71 percent of material collected through Boroondara’s kerbside bin services is diverted from landfill,” Gault said.