RESIDENTS are blaming the city council’s rubbish collection system for what they say is more rubbish littering the streets of some inner city suburbs.
They claim since the council brought in the use of the official yellow bags some rubbish is being left on the streets for weeks uncollected.
Donna Faith lives on Fairlie Terrace, close to Victoria University. She says her streets and others nearby have become strewn with litter.
“The council only picks up the yellow bags and the recycling bins. If someone’s put out their rubbish in plastic shopping bags or cardboard boxes it just gets left on the street to blow around in the wind.”
She says the problem was particularly bad at the end of the academic term when students were moving flats.
I’ve seen old washing machines, old fridges, even sofas, put out on rubbish collection day and of course they’re just left.”
John Tindall lives in Mt Victoria. He says there are times when rubbish in unofficial bags have sat on the kerbside for weeks, the bags broken into and their contents blown around the neighbourhood.
“I understand why the council introduced their rubbish bags. The problem is there seems to be no system in place to clean up the rubbish left behind by those who choose not to use them,” Tindall says.
CitiOperations assistant manager, Megan Lewis, admits the council does not keep track of rubbish put out in unofficial bags. She says rubbish in unofficial bags was stickered and it was then the responsibility of the resident to put the rubbish out in the correct bag the following week. If that did not happen it was up to other residents to notify the council.
“We need residents to take some responsibility,” Lewis says. “We cannot do anything about missed collections, unofficial bags etc if we do not know they exist.”
Lewis says if a resident calls the council about an unclaimed rubbish bag the council would collect it and inspect it for evidence as to who owns it. That person could be issued with an infringement notice.
“Our contractors do notify us of problem areas and we send out our audidors to take action to clear up and identify any serial offenders,” Lewis says.
Meanwhile the council says it has delivered 22,000 of its new recycling wheelie bins to householders and expects to have delivered all by April 29. The new bins will enable glass and other recycling waste to be collected separately. The wheelie bins are to be used for recycling paper, metals and plastics while the existing green recycling crates will be used to put out glass.
However not all households will get a wheelie bin, Properties assessed as unsuitable for wheelie bins due to terrain or access problems will receive recycling bags instead. The council expects to start delivering recycling bags after May 2 in time for the new kerbside collection service scheduled to start on May 16.