Knox Council to conduct random bin inspections

Residents with rubbish in the wrong bin might not have their waste collected under a new plan from a council in Melbourne’s outer east.

Knox Council will randomly check 10,000 rubbish bins over the next three months.

Knox Council has come under fire for its plan to randomly inspect thousands of residents’ rubbish bins, warning it won’t pick up bins with contaminated items.

The council will inspect about 10,000 bins between April and July, in a bid to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

It follows a similar move from Stonnington Council, where councillors approved a 12-month “feedback program”, which will give council staff the power to inspect the top 20 per cent of contents in residents’ bins.

The Knox inspections will be conducted by an independent contractor on behalf of the council, with “bin police” inspecting general waste, recycling and green waste bins.

Tags will be left on inspected bins giving residents’ feedback about whether the items in their bins are correct.

“If the inspection finds items in your bin that will contaminate the load, your bin will not be collected,” the council wrote on its website.

“The contaminated items will be marked on a red tag on your bin.

“You will need to remove the contaminated item(s) and wait until the next bin service collection.”

But on Councillor Nicole Seymour’s Facebook page, residents raised concerns about random passer-bys placing items in their bins without their consent, which may lead to their bins not being collected.

Some residents reported people dropping bags of dog poo and even cat litter into their bins without consent.

Ratepayers Victoria president Dean Hurlston criticised the plan.

“The role of council is to serve its residents and ratepayers and that somehow is being lost,” Mr Hurlston said.

“The largest single service council provides to all residents is waste and recycling services.

“Councils role is to educate and help residents. This dictatorial policy of refusing to collect bins is outrageous.”

Mr Hurlston said people stick things in other people’s bins all the time.

“Invading people’s privacy to slap them with warnings or non-collection is offensive.”

But Knox City Council Mayor, Cr Susan Laukens, said the focus was on education not enforcement.

“We are leaving postcards in letter boxes with some helpful hints on how to recycle better and composting options,” Cr Laukens said.

“The contaminated item(s) will need to be removed before the next service collection.”

Cr Laukens said 13.3 per cent of kerbside recyclables and 3 per cent of green waste was contaminated in Knox last year.

“Contamination causes problems at the waste sorting centre and can lead to entire truckloads of contaminated recyclables going to landfill,” she said.

Cr Laukens said the council was planning to introduce a new food and garden waste service mid next year.