Canterbury-Bankstown bins: Council refuses to provide transparency on affected streets
While council remains tight-lipped on exactly which streets were affected, some residents have already noticed positive changes in their bin collection.
The Express
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Following revelations recycling bins had been mixed with general waste on some Canterbury-Bankstown streets for the best part of a decade, council is refusing to let residents know if their sustainability efforts were in vain.
Canterbury-Bankstown Council recently admitted bin collectors had mixed waste and recycling on some 700 homes for almost 10 years, blaming a combination of narrow streets and hard-to-service routes needing to be completed during daylight hours.
However, council is refusing to release the streets impacted, only stating the ‘practice has been stopped’.
The Canterbury-Bankstown Express requested a list of affected streets, to help assure other members of the community were confident their rubbish was being collected correctly, but were denied the information on August 17, with two more follow up requests not responded to.
Instead, The Express was told: “The mayor has made his position quite clear over this issue and the practice has been stopped”.
The position was articulated in a press statement given on Monday, August 8, a few short days after the news broke that bins had been wrongly collected for 10 years.
Mayor Khal Asfour said: “But now all recycling bins, as well as any missed bins, will be collected by dedicated recycling trucks and taken to our recycling processing facility.”
The Express asked council for a timeline on when the new trucks would be arriving, but was not given a response to the question.
Residents say they’ve seen their bins being collected at different times.
Ashbury resident Matt Burke said he had noticed his bins being collected closer to 5am rather than later in the morning.
“There’s less traffic at that time, so it makes sense, but you can’t tell what they’re doing,” Mr Burke said. “All you know is that the bin has been emptied.”
Other residents, on the Bankstown side, said their service had been good.
Paul Judge, of Revesby, who recently campaigned to install a red-light at the Pozieres Dr/Milperra Rd intersection, said his bin collection had been faultless.
“We’ve had no issues here, and we support everything the council is doing,” Mr Judge said.
Independent councillor Barbara Coorey previously told The Express she was sceptical of the 700 bins figure provided to the media by Canterbury-Bankstown council, and suspected it was higher in practice.
After the original video showing yellow-lid bins being emptied into the same trucks as general waste, other videos have surfaced in the Earlwood community Facebook group, including one where a person’s entire bin was dropped into the truck.
They clarified Canterbury-Bankstown council replaced it within two days after making a complaint.
Have you noticed a change in your bin services? Contact paul.brescia@news.com.au
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