Fury as Western Australia council launches tiny new bin, collected every second week

An Aussie has lashed his council’s decision to reduce the size of their bin while also cutting down on collection days.

A council is shrinking the size of its wheelie bins while also decreasing collection day to just once a fortnight, sparking outrage from locals.

The changes are coming to the eastern Perth suburb of Belmont, with one resident taking to social media to lambast the move.

“Wait, so now our regular rubbish bin is a third of the size and only goes out every second week? Am I missing something? Nappies alone, this bin is full in a week, wtf,” they posted on Reddit.

Others agreed the move doesn’t work for all.

“We have a property with two houses and eight people between them, and two red bins is not enough for us; they are always full,” one wrote.

Another quipped: “And I bet your council rates don’t get reduced for the lesser service.”

The city recently approved a tender for a contract with Veolia to manage its waste, including transitioning from a two-bin to a three-bin food organics and garden organics (FOGO) system.

As part of its Waste Strategy 2030, the state government requires all local governments to adopt a three-bin system by 2025, which involves separating organic waste from general waste.

Hundreds of local government areas have adopted the FOGO bin system. Photo by: NCA Newswire

Belmont reduced the 240L red bin for non-compostable or non-recyclable waste to just 140L, collected fortnightly.

There will instead be a weekly collection of a 240L bin for food and organic waste, as well as a fortnightly collection of a 240L recycling bin.

It’s hoped the new system, which has been adopted by more than 230 councils nationwide, will reduce landfill waste, promote better sorting of waste at home and increase recycling.

According to the city’s website, more than half of the rubbish in general waste bins is food and garden organics, and the new collection service will give households an extra 70L per week, provided the waste is properly sorted.

An education campaign was conducted alongside the rollout of the three-bin system, which impacted about 15,000 households.

The WA Reddit user was fuming over the intruductuion of a tiny new general waste bin to be collected every second week. Picture: Reddit

The local Reddit thread also saw plenty actually in support of the new system.

One person from another area of WA said they had been using the system for years.

“Honestly, it’s only every couple of months that our bin is completely full even though it gets collected every two weeks,” they wrote.

“I feel I actually sort my rubbish properly now instead of before I used to chuck everything in the red bin.”

Another added: “It’s up to you to do your part. We switched last year (in VIC) and didn’t realise how much could go in compost.”

The City of Belmont’s website states it offers a larger general waste bin upon request and to those eligible.

Originally published as Fury as Western Australia council launches tiny new bin, collected every second week