Greens-led council shoots down green bins proposal

The Shoalhaven City Council has again voted down a motion to possibly introduce green bins, despite the kerbside green waste pick-up scheme being commonplace across the south coast.

The Shoalhaven City Council has again voted against the introduction of curbside green waste collection, with one councillor arguing the program has been “done to death”.

The Greens-led council failed to pass the motion for Mayor Amanda Finley to prepare a report on the possible introduction of green bins, introduced by councillor Serena Copley at its ordinary session on April 11. It will instead seek to take the proposed program to a briefing.

The green-topped bins are commonplace across the south coast, including in the nearby Eurobodalla and Bega Valley Shire Council areas, but have struggled to gain support in the Shoalhaven.

During Monday’s meeting, Councillor Patricia White said the proposal had been “done to death” and recalled a similar motion presented to the council a decade ago that met similar pushback.

“There’s reasons why we don’t have it,” she said.

“When you look at the cost of having a green bin, it’s not just a monetary cost, it’s a cost the ratepayer has to opt into. You can’t just say you don’t want one, so every one of the 50,000 ratepayers will have to opt in.”

Ms White argued that existing programs whereby residents can call to have green waste removed if they cannot do so themselves, either by way of a voucher or at personal cost, were already costing the council.

“Then there’s the damage to our roads,” she added.

“The garbage trucks have to physically back into people’s front yards to turn around.

Top view of Australian garbage wheelie bins for recycling, general and green waste.

“In this wet weather, I cannot believe what the extra trucks would do to people’s property.”

Ms Copley, who introduced the motion, argued that there was a need to improve green waste collection in the Shoalhaven, stating that many residents struggled to have bulky items removed.

“We don’t want people stockpiling green waste on their property, it’s a bushfire hazard,” she said.

“With climate change, we’re going to have more and more events like we’ve seen recently that generate a lot of green waste.

“We should be trying to look at different ways to facilitate green waste collection for our residents to make it easier and more affordable for people. Not everybody has a ute. Not everyone has a trailer.”

Ms Copley was supported by Councillor Paul Ell, who said the introduction of green bins was in-keeping with election promises.

“The management green waste in our city over an extended period has been inadequate,” he said.

“People don’t understand why this city doesn’t have a green bin.

“We understand the Bioelektra Australia facility is coming, and there are great opportunities for our city from that, but I think we do need to look at options to improve household bin capacity to enable a collection of green waste so that when that facility does come online, residents are still able to deal with that green waste issue.”

In January 2019, the Shoalhaven City Council entered into a long-term agreement with Bioelektra Australia, a NSW-based waste management firm, to build an operate a new waste processing facility.

The Resource Recovery Facility will be constructed on council-owned land adjacent to the current West Nowra Landfill site. Works commenced in 2020, with the facility due to be operational by late 2022.

Flooding in Sussex Inlet, part of the Shoalhaven City Council area. March 8 2022. Picture: Nathan Schmidt

Councillor John Wells said that facility and its relevant new technology superseded the need for a kerbside green waste management system, and in fact required green waste to be collected with normal waste.

“I’m mindful of the fact that council signed a legally binding contract with the company Bioelektra Australia in which there is an implicit provision that the red bins that will be delivered to that company will contain green waste,” he said.

“That is critical because the systems add water and require green waste because that is what provides the water. Any measure that would take green waste out of the red bins could leave council potentially exposed to changing the waste mix and making this technology essentially pretty ineffective.”

Ms Copley’s motion was supported by councillors Watson and Ell.

A second motion to take the issue of green waste collection to a briefing was proposed by councillor White and seconded by councillor Kristen, and was carried.

The result came as a disappointment to Ms Copley, who said as long as debate around the issue “raged”, it would continue to be brought to the chambers.

“I am disappointed by the dismissive attitude of some of the councillors here tonight,” she said.

“Quite a significant amount of residents in the Shoalhaven are not happy about the situation of collection of their green waste.

“Their dissatisfaction has just been dismissed, which is disappointing.”