Rubbish collection crisis seeing bins left piled up across Sydney

Sydney’s metropolitan area is in the grip of a rubbish crisis, with urgent meetings being held to bolster the city’s waste collection workforce as bins pile up.

Sydney is in the midst of a “garbage collection crisis”, with the City’s CEO to urgently meet with contractors in a bid to address uncollected bins and rubbish piling up throughout the city.

It comes as staff shortages caused by Covid-19 as well as “significant increases” in household trash results in waste piling up on inner-city streets.

Councillors on Monday voted in favour of City of Sydney CEO Monica Barone meeting with companies contracted to collect bins amid growing concern over vermin-infested rubbish.

A motion moved by Councillor Yvonne Weldon and accepted by councillors stated “many businesses and residents (being) concerned about delays and ‘no shows’ by waste collection services”.

Surry Hills resident Julie Waters said uncollected waste in the area has become “really bad in the last 12-18 months” with vermin on the rise.

Uncollected rubbish around Surry Hills. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

“It’s intolerable. Three weeks in a row our recycle bins didn’t get emptied,” she said.

“When bins don’t get picked up, people keep filling them up, the ibis are getting into them and pulling rubbish out everywhere … the rats are just horrendous.”

Surry Hills resident Julie Waters says the rubbish around the area is the worst she has ever seen. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

The local council is trying to keep up with the garbage collection. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

A City of Sydney spokeswoman told The Daily Telegraph working from home habits since Covid-19 had resulted in “significant increases” to household waste, which haven’t eased.

She said there had also been a high turnover in residents since pandemic restrictions eased, leading to an increase in illegally dumped waste as people exited their properties.

“The City of Sydney will continue to work with waste contractors and local businesses to overcome the ongoing challenges presented by Covid-19, personnel shortage and a residential community with high population turnover,” she said.

Clr Yvonne Weldon said “we must do better” at one of the council’s core functions.

“Waste collection services have become worse over the course of this year and the situation has reached crisis point,” she said.

“Community Facebook pages are filled with posts by irate residents demanding urgent action and photos of garbage rotting in their streets.”

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