The Inner West Council has expanded food and organic waste recycling, but there are concerns about the reduction of rubbish collection from weekly to fortnightly.
A Sydney council’s move to overhaul bin night by reducing the collection of general waste to once a fortnight has infuriated residents, who fear overflowing rubbish will be dumped in public parks or with their neighbours’ garbage.
Summer Hill resident Adrian Merlino said it was unrealistic to expect families to suddenly cut the amount of non-recyclable waste following the Inner West Council’s reduction in rubbish collection from weekly to fortnightly.A 10-year kerbside bin analysis commissioned by the NSW Environment Protection Authority found a weekly FOGO bin collection and a smaller fortnightly red-lid bin collection delivered the best results for food waste recovery, an EPA spokeswoman said.
Inner West mayor Darcy Byrne said an analysis by the council found the average household’s red-lid bin would be only 80 per cent full after a fortnight if all food waste and other recyclable materials were removed. He also said some people are “freaking out” about the reduction of red-lid bin collections from weekly to fortnightly: “The reality is, once you take out the food from your landfill bin, it will be quite small.”
“We almost always fill our bins every week,” he said. “We get through so much waste – it’s not food or can be recycled.”