Wyndham residents have slammed their council over its plan to reduce the size of household waste bins – but the council has no intention of backing down.
Nearly 140 people expressed their anger online last week after a Star Weekly report revealed residential waste wheelie bins would go from 140 litres in capacity to 120 litres, saving 1.4 million tonnes of waste across the city every year. Recycling bins will increase in size from 240 litres to 360 litres.
It’s part of the council’s new waste and litter strategy – which also include redeveloping the transfer station at the Werribee tip by 2020 and rolling out subsidised green waste bins to all properties.
Of those who commented, the majority of residents welcomed the council’s plan to increase the size of household recycling bins, but many were furious at the decision to cut the size of general rubbish bins, complaining that their bins were already full come collection day.
Many residents were also opposed to the idea of the council phasing out the number of tip tokens in favour of introducing three hard-waste collections a year.
Community consultation
Wyndham mayor Adele Hegedich said the council had broadly consulted with the community before adopting the waste and litter strategy, and would not be making any changes to the plans.
Cr Hegedich said reducing the size of Wyndham’s waste bins was bringing the area in line with national standards, adding that changes won’t be made until at least 2018, when the council’s current waste collection contract expires.
She said the council was reducing the tip tokens handed out because some landlords were not passing on the tokens to their renters.
“At the end of the day, our aim is to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill,” she said.
