By Alesha Capone
Wyndham council may introduce a weekly kerbside collection of food and garden organics from households, as part of its future waste services.
Cr Peter Maynard announced the news at a meeting last week, when councillors voted to award a new kerbside waste collection services contract to Cleanaway Pty Ltd.
The service, which will commence on December 5, is for the municipality’s garbage, recycle and garden organics waste collection services.
Cr Maynard said that under the new contract, a potential future service involving the weekly collection of food and garden organics – aka FOGO – might be introduced in Wyndham.
Cr Maynard said that a fortnightly residual waste collection; the provision of a kitchen caddy; and an annual supply of compostable caddy liners might also be introduced.
The new contract will continue the council’s base waste services, with a weekly rubbish bin collection, fortnightly recyclables collection and optional fortnightly garden organics collection.
Cr Maynard said that under the new contract, household bins would also be fitted with radio frequency identification tags (RFIDs).
Cr Maynard said this meant Cleanaway would be paid for the number of bins emptied, rather than the total number of bins in service.
As well, Cr Maynard said that in the future, he would like to Wyndham residents benefit from the operations of the Werribee tip, either financially or in services provided.
Cr Mia Shaw echoed these sentiments, and said the council should look at ways that residents could use the tip “in a cheaper way”.
Cr Heather Marcus said that under the council’s new contract, househoulds could choose to have a green waste bin for $80 per year.
Cr Marcus said that the council was also working hard to clean up illegal rubbish dumped in areas such as Dohertys Road, Boundary Road, Bulban Road and Werribee South.
“Weekly, we’re getting people complaining about garbage litter on all of our roads and council are getting out as quickly as they can,” she said.
Cr Marcus encouraged residents who witness illegal rubbish dumping to report it to the council by calling 9742 0777.
