AFTER years of debate at both council and community level, Mount Gambier residents will have access to a City Council-operated hard waste collection service, while greenwaste fees have been dumped in a bid to encourage households to dispose of organic waste responsibly.
The major overhaul to council’s kerbside collection service was endorsed by elected members at Tuesday night’s full council meeting, approving a bulky goods collection trial while making green waste tags a thing of the past.
New and existing users will not need to pay any fee for kerbside green organics collection from July 1.
However, people requiring a green waste bin will be charged a one-off $85 fee, which council will deliver along with a kitchen caddy and biodegradable waste bags to help the transition to improved organic waste disposal.
Council will incur an estimated loss of income in the order of $518,000, but council infrastructure general manager Nick Serle believes the social benefits outweigh the financial impact.
“The social benefits of providing a free food organics, green organics (FOGO) collection service to the entire City of Mount Gambier community would far outweigh the cost in this difficult time of COVID-19 pandemic when so many of our community are struggling to meet their basic needs,” Mr Serle said in a report tabled at council.
“Savings would be realised in the general waste service due to reduced volumes of waste sent to landfill.”
Green waste bins will remain an “opt-in” service, however current and future year education programs would include a push on FOGO and seek to increase the take up of such bins.
Council’s bulky goods collection trial will form part of the local government body’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, giving each residential property access to one pick up service by appointment.
Council will allocate $200,000 to the service between July 1 and December 31, with each household able to organise to have a maximum of two cubic metres of hard waste collected from their kerbside.
Conditions will apply to what types of waste will be accepted with an aim to encourage responsible disposal of household items.
The service will be carried out by staff who have been employed under council’s COVID-19 short-term employment program, which was endorsed by elected members earlier this month.
“Bulky waste has been an issue for some time, this is an opportunity to try this option and see if it has long term potential as a suitable option for this waste stream,” Mr Serle said in the report.
“It will reduce waste to landfill and potentially reduce illegal dumping -at charity stores and in other locations such as quiet roads on the outskirts of town and pine forests near Mount Gambier.”
Councillor Christian Greco eagerly moved each waste motion during Tuesday night’s virtual meeting, labelling them the most exciting recommendations in his five-year term on council.
“These are the best two items I have ever seen on the agenda,” he said.
“It’s about time we are doing it … I was happy to tell people ‘look what’s coming up’, I could not be more excited.”
Cr Frank Morello shared the enthusiasm, labelling the hard waste trial a good step forward.
“It will no doubt help a lot of people who do not have the means to dispose of large bulky items at the waste transfer station, it will give them an opportunity to declutter while also reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill,” he said.
Mount Gambier resident and former councillor Merv White also praised the changes, which he said were often debated during his time in the chamber.
“When hard waste collection was first canvassed during my time on council, we were not sure if it would be economically viable,” he said.
“These are both excellent ideas and anything free of charge for residents at the moment is a good thing.”
Further information about how residents can access the hard waste service will be released by council in the coming weeks.
