City of Moreland hard waste: Brunswick footpaths ‘unusable’ after contractor hit with Covid

The hipster paradise of Brunswick has been hard to get around for the past week — find out why here.

A typical scene in Brunswick with rubbish piled up on the street.

Mattresses, old sofas and other rubbish is piling up on the footpaths of an inner-city suburb, after the company contracted to remove it had its workforce decimated by Covid.

Brunswick residents are being forced to wait up to 10 extra days for their footpaths to be cleared, as contractor WM Waste Management battles to keep staff on the ground

Some locals are claiming the mountains of rubbish are attracting dumpers from other suburbs.

Brunswick resident Andrea Bunting said the footpaths had been inaccessible in some areas.

“In some places there has been so much rubbish that the paths could not be used,” Ms Bunting said.

“Brunswick has some very narrow footpaths.”

She said that the past 10 days had been particularly difficult for people with disabilities, mobility issues and parents pushing prams.

Ms Bunting said “there has definitely been some dumping,” which she believed exacerbated the issue.

Moreland councillor Oscar Yildiz said the same issue had arisen in the Yarra Ranges with that council using the same contractor.

“Seeing it the streets … it does promote illegal dumping,” Cr Yildaz said.

He said there was no one to blame for the situation, adding that next year Moreland could look towards booked hard waste collection services.

The council said it had received nine complaints from residents regarding the rubbish.

WM Waste Management’s Michael Strickland said the company had “started behind the eight ball” when truck drivers began to contract Covid when the company was removing rubbish from the Shire of Yarra Ranges.

“You have times when six drivers don’t turn up — it sort of devastates the process,” Mr Strickland said.

He said that in addition to Covid there was an overall truck driver shortage across Victoria.

“Everyone wants things delivered. There’s more demand for drivers and not enough of them to go around,” he said.

Mr Strickland said 10 trucks would be removing rubbish in Moreland from Monday.

“Once they’re all out there, we’ll start making some good progress,” he said,

Mr Strickland said that they would even be working on Saturday in Moreland, a day they would generally get off.

Mayor Mark Riley said he wanted to thank residents for their patience.

“Unfortunately, like some other councils, the collection schedule has been delayed in some cases by up to 10 days,” Cr Riley said.

“This is due to staff shortages through our hard waste contractor caused by Covid-19.

“However, I’m pleased to say that crews started collecting hard rubbish on Tuesday, and are doing everything they can to make it up on time.”