City of Whittlesea Council considers moving to fortnightly rubbish pick-ups

A council in Melbourne’s north could move to fortnightly rubbish collections, in a move slammed as “completely unreasonable”.

Whittlesea Council is considering moving to fortnightly garage collections.

Residents in the City of Whittlesea may soon have their rubbish collected fortnightly, under a move being considered by the local council.

Whittlesea Council’s chair administrator Lydia Wilson said as part of the council’s Rethinking Waste Plan 2021-2030, it would be extending the food and garden waste service to the whole municipality and would be conducting further community consultation on switching to a fortnightly garbage collection by 2023.

“No final decision on a move to fortnightly general waste collection has been reached, and this will not occur until community consultation has been completed,” she said.

“Previous consultations with community showed over 85 per cent of our residents were in favour of a weekly food and garden waste collection.

“Food waste makes up more than 56 per cent of waste in the garbage bin.

“Having a separate bin for food waste will drastically reduce the amount of waste in the garbage bin and the need for a weekly collection of the garbage bin.”

The State Government is pushing councils to transition to a four-bin waste system statewide by the end of the decade.

City of Yarra residents, pictured last year, were upset when their council moved to fortnightly recycling collections. Picture: David Geraghty

The system would see Victorians sorting their waste into a food and garden organics (FOGO) bin, a general waste bin, a recycling bin and a glass bin.

Moreland Council is also considering making the shift to fortnightly pick-ups, with Bayside City Council also collating community feedback on the change to weekly collections for food and green waste and fortnightly collections for general waste planned for July 2022.

Glen Eira Council has already made the change, picking up residents’ red bins (general waste) every two weeks.

But Hobsons Bay Council recently voted to scrap a similar fortnightly collection policy following massive community backlash.

Evan Mulholland, Director of Communications at free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, rubbished the idea of fortnightly collections.

“Fortnightly rubbish is a terrible proposal, what council is asking is for families to keep dirty nappies and rubbish sitting in their residential bins for up to two weeks,” he said.

“It’s completely impractical and unreasonable.

“The duty of a local council is to keep rates low, collect rubbish and fix local roads, Whittlesea Council are passing the buck on a core responsibility.”

Ratepayers Victoria president Dean Hurlston also opposed the move.

“We have seen other municipalities like Hobsons Bay end up backflipping on this idea,” he said.

“We have seen an almost all out war from residents in Yarra over similar issues.

“Councils should never make any changes unless it comes from the majority of the municipality’s residents being extensively surveyed, not, as it appears, hellbent activists insisting we should cut weekly collections.”