Monash Council plans to scrap weekly rubbish bin pick-ups

Despite mounting anger from residents, a local council is sticking with its plan to scrap weekly rubbish bin collections.

Monash Council is planning to move to fortnightly pick-ups for rubbish (red lid) bins in August.

Despite mounting pressure from residents, a suburban council is sticking with its plan to scrap weekly rubbish bin collections.

Under the Monash Council proposal, labelled a “brain fart” by one resident, food and garden waste (green lid) bins will be collected weekly, and rubbish (red lid) bins will be collected every two weeks, starting in August.

More than 1900 people have now signed a petition calling for the plan to be scrapped, and the weekly red rubbish bin collection retained.

The council has also received more than 3000 responses to its online survey, asking how it could help the community in the transition to the new system,

Monash Mayor Stuart James said the council acknowledged it was a big change for the community and that people had questions.

“The feedback so far has been really helpful in us better understanding some of the challenges our community think they will have,” Cr James said.

“Once the survey period is over, we’ll write to our community again outlining ways in which we’ll address many of their key concerns, as well as providing them with additional information on diverting waste from landfill.

“Council has resolved its intention to make the change from August this year and that’s still the current resolution.”

But the changes have kicked up a stink with locals.

“I suggest that if they go through with this, that the council install overflow skips outside each of their branch offices so ratepayers can dump surplus crap between fortnightly collections,” Jared Pereira wrote on a Glen Waverley community Facebook page.

“They would then have an independent metric to determine the success or otherwise of this latest brain fart.”

Glen Waverley resident Winnie Wong called on the council to keep the weekly red rubbish bin collection.

“Depending on the circumstances you face (in your household) people with large families, those with medical needs or with babies who can’t use recycled nappies because of their situation, they are really going to struggle, which will lead to bins overflowing,” she said.

Many Monash Council residents are not happy their rubbish bins will be soon be picked up fortnightly, instead of weekly.

Ms Wong said she was “shocked” at the way a council survey about the changes had been presented, with the final decision appearing to have already been made without residents having a say.

“I thought the survey was a way to gauge what the community’s response was, in terms of changing the bin collection cycle from weekly to fortnightly,” she said.

“It was only halfway through the survey when I realised they are actually going to change the collection service to fortnightly – I was a bit shocked because I thought the purpose of the survey was to see what the community wants.

“I feel like the survey isn’t really a survey but more like something to make the community happy with the decision the council has made without consulting the community.”

But the council says since introducing a food waste recycling service to help residents keep food scraps out of landfill, it has heard great stories about how the amount of rubbish in landfill bins has decreased.

“We are also aware that not everyone is recycling their food waste and we’ve heard your concerns regarding the fortnightly collection of food scraps,” the council said on its website.

“To address your feedback and allow more food and garden clippings to be collected for composting, we’re changing how often food and garden waste (green lid) bins and rubbish (red lid) bins are collected.

“This can also encourage those who aren’t recycling their food scraps to start doing so – and we’ll be here to support you on this journey.”

It says it knows some families will be concerned by the changes, including large households, families using nappies, or households with medical waste.

It is looking at ways to support parents who would like to use reusable nappies and further reduce waste going to landfill.

Cr James said the council was committed to a more sustainable waste collection that works for residents and is better for the environment.

“We all know that the amount of landfill we are generating is unsustainable and we need to take immediate steps to reduce this,” Cr James said.

“We also know that more than 50 per cent of landfill is food and organics waste, which is why we introduced a food waste recycling service in July 2020.

“It’s now time to build on its success by improving our collection cycles.

“From August 2022, we will be collecting food and garden waste weekly and general rubbish fortnightly.

“There are many councils who have already made this change and we’ve learned from some of their experiences.”

Feedback is open until Friday March 25.

Visit shape.monash.vic.gov.au/bin-collection.