Ballarat City Council dumps hard rubbish collection

By Marcus Power
Updated November 2 2012 - 1:03pm, first published December 10 2009 - 1:17pm

A HARD rubbish collection is out, and tip vouchers have been brought in, under a new Ballarat City Council waste management strategy. At its ordinary meeting this week the council approved a series of short, medium and long-term strategies to achieve its waste-reduction targets.Two vouchers will be given to each residential property for free disposal of up to one cubic metre of waste at the council's transfer station.And despite widespread community support for a green waste collection, that will not be introduced until a regional processing facility can be set up.A report presented to councillors said a survey showed that 70 per cent of residents supported the introduction of an organic waste collection service at a cost of $1 a week.It said 78 per cent of residents wanted an organic waste collections service to include kitchen and garden waste.Just under two-thirds of residents supported the introduction of a kerbside hard waste collection service. South ward Councillor Des Hudson said the council should look again at the issue.He said the City of Cardinia on Melbourne's south-eastern fringe had recently reverted to a hard waste collection after using a voucher system for a time.But the council's sustainability executive manager, Ian Rossiter, said the trend in most metropolitan councils was to move away from kerbside hard rubbish collections due to concerns about safety and litigation. South ward Councillor Ben Taylor said the council was required to implement the "towards zero" waste policy set by the State Government. The policy commits the council to diverting 65 per cent of its collected waste away from landfill.At present, the council is only diverting about 30 per cent of waste from landfill.Cr Taylor said a hard rubbish collection did not encourage recycling but encouraged people to put more waste out.

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