The gap between the City of Ballarat's philosophical position on waste and recycling and the reality of what happens on our streets has been caught in an early morning video filmed on a homeowner's security camera.
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The video of a 6.30am garbage collection in Ballarat shows a council truck emptying a non-recyclable waste bin into its hopper, followed by the emptying of a yellow-lid recycling bin into the same load of rubbish.
The video was shared with The Courier by a incredulous local, who said their incredulity was somewhat tempered by the fact it's not the first time it's happened.
"Normally this happens when (the council trucks) have missed both bins that day, and I've emailed them to complain - the truck (comes and) picks up whatever is left," they said.
The City of Ballarat says the dual pick-up was 'inadvertent'.
The ratepayer said it had been common for their bins to be left unemptied by council under a previous waste management regime, but the failure was disappointing given they had previously notified the City of Ballarat regarding potholes and had been very happy with council's response, saying depot workers had completely fixed a nearby street in a day, leaving locals were thrilled with the outcome.
On its website, the City of Ballarat's stated aim is to reduce landfill.
"We want to get our contamination rate of recycling bins down to zero and reduce how much waste is going to landfill," the website says.
"Not transporting waste back to landfill would save about 22,000km each year. That equals about 200 semi-trailers loads, or 4900 tonnes, from Ballarat to Melbourne, and would save about 75 tonnes a year of greenhouse gases from reduced heavy vehicle transport each year."
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Ballarat's mayor Daniel Moloney, in an opinion piece in the The Courier last year, called for a rethink on the amount of waste going into landfill.
"Every year about 5000 garbage trucks full of waste are collected from homes and businesses in Ballarat. They tip their loads - some 50,000 tonnes worth - into Ballarat's Regional Landfill." Cr Moloney wrote.
"But think about this, if every household in Ballarat reduced the amount of garbage in its bin by just one average size bag every week, the life of the landfill would be extended by around two months. Just one kilogram less in your garbage bin each week would keep almost 2,000 tonnes out of landfill each year."
In a statement the City of Ballarat's director of infrastructure and environment Bridget Wetherall said the pick up was unintentional.
"A general household waste collection vehicle has inadvertently collected both the general waste and recycling," Ms Wetherall said.
"We are reviewing the incident. Our staff are committed to delivering services that maximise resource recovery and recycling."
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