Yarra Ranges bin collection: Poetry on wheelie bin has residents divided
A form of poetry originating from Japan has been splashed across waste trucks in Melbourne’s outer east, with residents labelling the program — which includes printing residents’ own poems on stickers for their bins — as a “load of rubbish”.
Outer East
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An outer east council has taken bin day to a new level in iso with poetry splashed across its trucks and residents wheelie bins.
But the project has met with controversy with some rubbishing the idea and questioning how much this is costing ratepayers.
However not everyone is hating on the idea with many praising the move.
For those unfamiliar, a Haiku is a type of poetry originally from Japan, which traditionally has three short sentences of five, seven and five words.
The project, called ‘Put Out Your Poetry’, encourages community members to share moments of life during the pandemic and restrictions.
Rubbish trucks displaying a bright pink sticker with a haiku but people can submit their poetry and receive it back in a sticker form to put on their wheelie bin.
But community feedback on the council’s Facebook page has been mixed.
Jacqui McKenzie said: “No matter how you paint this Yarra Ranges Council it’s still a waste of ratepayers money.”
“You know it’s not only the cost of the stickers in question here,” Ms McKenzie said.
“The planning and video production, staff wages to put together this program the list goes on.
“If you wanted to help the community and our small businesses you should have come on here and asked the community for ideas.
“I’m pretty sure not one person would have come up with putting stickers on rubbish bins.”
Audrey Johnson said she was not a fan of the idea and “waste” of her rates.
“Rubbish collection is a necessity, I don’t sit on the front porch with a coffee in hand waiting for the truck to go past so I can read a poem on the side of it,” Ms Johnson said.
While some added their haikus to the feedback.
Marie Federico called the idea a “load of rubbish”.
But there were a few who praised the move.
Elaine Hogan Hanley said she loved it.
“Thank you for bring art to our daily life in a quirky fun way,” Ms Hanley said.
While Kate Baker said it was a great idea.
“It’s a low-cost way of bringing a sense of connection into our own streets,” Ms Baker said.
“It is also a little fun in this dreary never-ending focus on the daily numbers.
“There are so many ways people need help of course. And I know many of those steps are being taken at multiple levels of our social support system.
“Encouraging culture and connection is worth something too.”
Yarra Ranges communities director Jane Price said the initiative was a simple way for the community to be creative and connect with one another.
“We’ve already had a great number of people participating, with more than 100 community members creating poems and getting stickers for their bins in the first week of the project.
“By giving people the chance to create poems – and display them publicly – they are able to express themselves during a time when they may be feeling isolated or experiencing a range of emotions.”
Ms Price said the project cost $8500 to date and had created jobs for two local artists and two local printing companies.
“Put Out Your Poetry encourages community members to share moments of life during the pandemic and restrictions,” she said.
“We’ve received a significant amount of stories so far from our community, shared in an online gallery.”
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