My council is going to change to a fortnighly general waste collection!! While green bin is changed to every week. My 80 litre red bin is full every week. How do people cope with this madness!?
Council Changing General Waste Collection to Fortnightly!!
mrvaluepack on 21/03/2023 - 06:43
Comments
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
100% that is the answer for everyone!!!
We have a local park where the bins are usually empty, I just take our overflow there.
Nice, no issues so far? Do you do it under the cover of darkness?
Yes I usually wait until later when nobody will be around. Always loads of room in the bins so I don't feel like I'm taking up anyone's space.
Yeah, I live with 6 other adults and we're filling up everything within 3 days and then are resorting to using the grass bin for scraps, can't do shit about it.
Menulog is constant rubbish and getting 18 menulogs delivered a day is a bit (profanity).I share a small bin with a family of 6, we could get away with fortnightly collection. Stop producing so much landfill.
I seriously doubt you are telling the truth. No way 6 people in one household can live with one 80L red bin with fortnightly collection.
Very easily if you are responsible and put the right items in the correct bin.
Wouldn't be the easiest feat but from looking at how empty our bin often is, we could do it. We do very little online shopping, use reusable produce bags and buy bulk wholefoods in our own bags/jars. Have a look at your own habits and see where you could improve. It is definitely doable and I think this is a great move to encourage people to produce less rubbish. Bin collection frequency changes were always going to come before people producing less rubbish. A step in the right direction.
Stop producing so much landfill.
genius solution…. /s
because the average consumer dictates how much wasteful packaging corporations package their goods in
Stop visiting this website and buying endless amounts of stuff you don't really need. You might find your bin is less full at the end of the week.
you don't decide how much packaging is used for item x, but you decide whether you buy item x.
most people are still putting their one apple or two potatoes in single use plastic bags at the shops for literally no reason. that's not the fault of the apple 'manufacturer'.
equally, it's not the fault of the manufacturer that they use xyz efficient way to pack and ship their product. it's on government to regulate it and on consumers to not buy it.
also, just buy less stuff? how often are you purchasing non-food/household consumable items? buying electronics or clothes or whatever really should not be a weekly thing that's taking up space in your red bin.
Yep so true. I’m doing all this and trying to get others to follow suit, but it’s hard people are stuck in their ways until they are forced to change. The way I see it change is good, just not too much of it. After COVID though we should all be better at adapting to change. I’ve noticed a lot of peoples behaviours have gone back to normal but lots of changed too so that’s great. So good to hear that most on here know what we have to do to change.
Family of 4. Agree. Reusable bags, buy things in bulk recycle most stuff. Soft plastics are the sticking point now that Redcycle tanked but we've stopped buying so much packaged stuff as a result which is a good thing. Kids are out of nappies which makes a big difference.
They have to pay for There overseas junket tours somehow, give them a break …
Completely understand that everyone's milage may vary, but a fortnightly Red Bin (Rubbish) sounds perfect for us.
After moving in with my partner, we've both actively been trying to improve our waste output situation. And now we barely generate any Red Bin waste to speak of and could technically live with once every 3-4 weeks. Some monthly things should always get removed asap…
Overtime we've got a pair of worm farms up and running, which take care of all the kitchen scraps we generate.
Anything that isn't worm suitable, goes into our two compost bins, along with some of the garden waste. And only then do we start putting things in the green bin. Its amazing how much of our waste got diverted this way.Recycling is generally full every couple of weeks too. But this is more due to me finally getting over my box hoarding habits, and beginning to cut em up for recycling. Even then some of these go back to lining the worm farms.
Polystyrene is taken care of by a program my partner knows, where they use it to create dog kennels.
We're still collecting, compacting and stashing away any soft plastics we do go through, in the hopes that the a similar program restarts in our area. I know a few other councils have restarted similar programs.The best habit we've gotten into is to reduce what comes in…Can't throw out what was never in the house to begin with.
looks like you guys don't have much to do on your plate as you guys wanna improve your waste output situation lol
Maybe the local sanitation commissioner spent all his budget in one week.
I hope my council doesn't implement this or we'll be dumping stinky, pissy nappies in the local bins around the neighbourhood. They sure as shit won't be staying in our red bin for a whole fortnight.
Ours is already fortnightly. Took a while to get used to but that was largely due to moving. The other thing that catches you out is polystyrene so that shit has to be rationed in…
All this will do is people will fill up each others bins on bin night or will dump in public areas
Yep, the councillors will reap what they sow
What time of day are the bins on your side of the road collected? What about the other side of the road? Chances are this will be very consistent week to week as they run the same route. What I have done before is get the bin emptied on one side, top it up then get it collected on the other side….
There will also be council operated bins at local parks, sports grounds, and shopping strips. Instead of bringing rubbish home with you dispose of it (properly) when you're still out of the house.
I bring rubbish home with me when bins are either full or non-existent in public areas and never filled the bin. We all just need to use less and we wouldn’t have as many issues as we do across the country and world for that matter.
I think it's important to recognise that each household has different circumstances. If you have 3 young kids, 2 in nappies, 4BR household on full size block managing to a minimal bin size is a different equation to a single person household living in a 1BR unit.
@HCBargain: Yes agreed but my point is everyone can use less, including myself for some things but I’ve been changing how much stuff I buy/use overtime and why we don’t fill our bins. Households with 6 or more would have to change a fair bit but as lots of comments on here have confirmed it’s possible.
@bobwokeup: Yes that's also a fair comment.
In our house when we started to collect soft plastics for recycling at the supermarket we were actually astounded at home much volume it built up every week. And we were disappointed with the eventual scandal. So yes, paper bags from Woolies rather than plastic is an easy adjustment, loose fruit rather than pre-packaged, and many other examples.@HCBargain: Yep as l long as most of us are trying to change and adapt that’s the most important. I too was disappointed with the soft plastics when that stopped but the good news is the large supermarkets have come to an agreement on how to continue. So that should roll out soon hopefully 🤞🏽
I reckon we should get bin sizes based on land size. Or have certain thresholds like 80L for 50-150m2 land size, 120L for 151-250m2, etc. We are already paying more rates based on the land size so why shouldnt we get bins to suit? Logically thinking a larger land produces more waste.
I think number of occupants needs to play into it too..
So the empty nesters on their half acre blocks should all have 1000L bins taken weekly?
This is your worst idea yet.
The problem with this now occurring is sanitary waste will inevitability stink out the bin if it's sitting around for two weeks. Needs to continue to be weekly.
We could probably go a month without filling our red bin. Most of our rubbish are food waste and can go into compost. Any meat waste is in freezer and put out on bin night. Almost everything else is recyclable or gets re-used/upcycle. Any e-waste, batteries, metal are collected and disposed of at the tip once we have enough. We don’t buy a lot of stuff to begin with and usually not all at once so likely we would still have the space in the red bin if we needed it.
Everyone’s situation will be different but IMO I think there is probably areas that you can lower waste if your red bin is filling up every single week.
When we made a conscious decision to start sorting waste our "red" bin went to bugger all. (House of 4, 650m2, small red bin). If it wasn't for nappies we could put it out once a month.
The off occasion we need a bit more space (parties,christmas etc.) - but can usually work out with the neighbors or store some non-smelly stuff aside.
The off occasion we need a bit more space (parties,christmas etc.) - but can usually work out with the neighbors or store some non-smelly stuff aside.
Ah, so it's actually not frequently enough, but you rationalize that it's no inconvenience to store general waste in your carport for an extra fortnight. No rats in your area?
It's not frequent enough for say 2 out of 52 weeks per year, so we can deal with asking a neighbour or putting it in a plastic tub for 3.8% of the time. Easily rationalised when compared to a big diesel truck having to drive past twice as often to empty a 1/4 filled bin.
Rats! Yep, we have chickens so it comes with the territory.
And its typically non-recyclable styrofoam thats bulky and comes with christmas presents thats carried over.
I also dont "rationalise that it's no inconvenience." "Rationalise" usually involved some sort of balance, and this one is fine.
So much city privilege! I just moved away from living at a country property where there was no council bin collection and you had to take your rubbish to the tip and pay per bin (and buy your own bins)
I learnt very quickly how easy it was to reduce waste…I did a tip run once every ~3months when my 240L bin was almost (but not quite) fullMy initial reaction to fortnightly bin collection was 'whats the big deal, Brisbane has that already', but the primary difference is that we have 240l bins.
There are plenty of recommendations above around asking council for options, but the thing which I wish Brisbane had was the purple bin to further separate glass recycling from other recycling. That said, cash for cans helps with the amount of waste in our home, so I would prefer smaller bins with more specific purposes, as opposed to bigger bins with more general items.
Where I live (Melville WA) we have had this setup for a couple of years. Most people seem to cope.
The council does have an option for you to pay for 2 general waste bins if you need it.
I think it is a couple of thousand dollars a year though.
They supply a bigger recycling bin free of charge on request.
Imagine the stink after 2 weeks of general waste.
Why would general waste stink? Maybe nappies and dog poo, but both of those should be bagged.
nappies even double bagged will still stink after 2 weeks
2 weeks is ridiculous.
Good to see the push for woke idiots is starting to affect the woke idiots voting for them
Spoken like a true idiot who knows the term woke but doesn’t realise it’s 2023 🤦🏽♂️
yes and companies that are going woke are still going broke…
especially companies that make woke films like the new top gun, right?
the world is a terrifying enough place already without you inventing new definitions of 'woke'
pray for clarity of mind
it won't come but try anyway
While i understand the change, if you forget to put your bin out the things in the red bin can get pretty ripe after a month without being picked up. And then you have councils trying to fine you $5000 for have a smelly bin.
most daily household waste is either food scraps or recyclable, if you dispose of all your waste correctly instead of just throwing it in the general waste bin, you will have plenty of room, where i live we have the weekly green bin and the general waste and recycle bin alternate each week, no one seems to struggle with the system
Had it for ages. It’s not that bad. All good scraps go in the weekly green bin.
If you are desperate you can get a weekly pickup here, for extra cost.
Isn't it a easy solution to get fit doing more walks carrying your rubbish and loading up council public bins
I wish my council would do weekly (instead of fortnightly) green bin collections, but having said that, I'd be pretty annoyed if they changed the general rubbish to fortnightly. It's not that I normally fill my general rubbish bin to more than half full in a week, but more about the fact that a) it could get pretty rank after two weeks, and b) there are occasions when I do fill it completely. Councils attempting to force people to create less waste is unlikely to change any habits, and will just inconvenience those people who are already doing their best. I know there are plenty of people who would just dump their rubbish on the footpath (somebody else's) if it didn't fit in the bin, so really it's likely just creating a new problem as wel!
I got to “I know there are plenty of people who would just dump their rubbish on the footpath” where I stopped. Seriously what kind of people do you know, I don’t know anyone that would do that.
Perhaps I should have said "I know of", because although I don't know them personally, I have witnessed what people do when they run out of room in their own bins to stuff their half empty takeaway packaging from their daily Uber eats deliveries.
Ah fair enough, yeah that makes sense I’ve heard of people like that but they are in the minority thankfully.
It's all relative, but geeze we love a whinge don't we?! Remember, there's a war in Ukraine, billions live under dictatorships.
And here in Australia we have it so good - we complain about the bins…..We put the the bins out and they (mostly) get collected on time. And the rubbish is gone. Pretty good service.
Admittedly, it's a little annoying changing it up, but let's have a little perspective hey!
indeed… anyone complaining about losing essential local amenities & services is probably pro-putin, an anti-vaxxer, a climate change denier, conservative, alt-right wing conspiracy theorist and potentially a threat to national security!!!
To be fair, nothing is lost. It's just a shift.
We have screwed up the planet and we have to shift our behaviour. It won't be easy. Some people won't like it.
But it has to be done.Not sure what that has to do with being pro-putin, an anti-vaxxer, etc.
Most people have good intentions but just don't want to put in the extra work or effort. But if it's imposed on them, they probably eventually will.
This is a basic essential service that should be for free in a developed country. Even underdeveloped countries collect their bins 2-3 times a week.
We already get it and don’t need the red bin collected weekly as we have 2 other bins to reduce unnecessary waste. Countries that collect that often are part of the problem, not the solution, which you are refusing to accept.
When I was living in South Korea 20 years ago, they charged for plastic rubbish bags to motivate people to recycle more and put their food scraps in a separate bin.
I am in the ACT and we have a FOGO trial going on where red bins are collected once a fortnight and FOGO bins collected weekly. As a family of four, I cant wait for this to be rolled out to our suburb.
In Japan and Korea I noticed there is far better adherence (compared to Australia) when disposing of food/organic waste. I don't know the specific financial rewards/costs but I also assumed it was due to a greater emphasis on 'collective good' and less individualistic view of society.
Also, in Japan and Korea, as relatively small countries with limited land and dense populations, it is less accepted to waste food and the food waste would instead go to livestock or compost. Something people know, value and respect.
Ultimately, it does take a little extra effort to recycle properly, and separate food waste and compost, etc.
I've composted before and the raw compost stinks and its not nice to handle it. But it really improves the soil and worms love it!
Does that mean to not speak up? Has op done something wrong?
Yes op has done something wrong, they clearly need to change how much they use. Speaking up is encouraged but not when it’s about changes that are good for everyone, even if they don’t realise it.
Lets turn that around. What self righteous jerks decided to disrupt the status quo by whinging about general waste, enough so that now the councils can throw a million large green bins into landfill and replace them with smaller bins, collected less frequently. Councils and nutters just love to whinge and waste time.
Why must councils have different coloured bins for everything? For me, red bin is green waste. Blue is recycling, green bin is general waste but in another council the colours are different.
I'm so confused. I think I'll go to sleep now.It’s taking time but eventually all will be the same in every council. Not sure if that is across the country or each state?
Talk about confusing, I used to have two green bins. General waste had a dark green lid whilst garden waste was light green … "throw this in the green bin" … "which one?" came the reply.
Today, red lid is general waste, green is garden waste and yellow is recycling.
TIL some people still had their rubbish bins collected weekly.
You have to vote the council out next election. Hobson’s Bay in Melbourne had a big fight back on this I believe.
In the meantime…
1. Put your excess rubbish in council public bins at the local parks (watched many people do this)
2. In the worst case, put more in your recycling bin. Most of it doesn’t get recycled anyways.Cross contamination is often tracked and a measure they use to judge success of their new bin program.
3. Watch the local rodent/vermin population grow and enjoy the neighbourhood smell on bin days.Why are people demanding the right to generate more waste?
Why don’t governments make companies produce products with less packaging? This problem is only going to be solved upstream. This bin service reduction doesn’t magically reduce waste!
They are already doing that with plastic and it’s a huge job to get all companies to change. If we change our habits at the consumer level that will force compactor change their ways.
Because there is so much rubbish around !
The answer is to produce less waste. There’s only rubbish around from lazy people who don’t look for a bin.
Shouldn't council give you a bigger red bin?
My council replaced the 80l bin with a 140l when they switched from weekly to fortnightly collections.
Wished they would. Looking at other councils around my area they didn't.
As i said below, you can order additional bin.
I honestly don't know how you manage to fill in a whole bin every week. For us it only happens when we buy some which has lots of Styrofoam.
We're a family of five but I take our 80L rubbish bin out once in about 2 months and it won't be even half full.
I do compost so the food scrap bin never goes out.Our council will be doing the same soon.
We started composting, worm farm and do try to be careful when purchasing stuff.
We have a family of 4 and the 80l red bin is around 50% full when we take it out. The recycle bin is almost full every week.The green bin hasn't been taken out in 3 months and has nothing in it.
We shred the sticks and grass and use them as mulch.
Out of interest (unless you don’t eat meat), where do you put meat scraps/bones? I didn’t think this was suitable for home composting but many councils accept these in green bins along with other food scraps.
To the dog. What doesn't go to the dog goes to the red bin. I can't put it in the green bin because that's empty and although techincally can go in the compost, I'd rather not due to the length of time needed to breakdown.
I see, lucky dog. You can also just put down a bit of newspaper in the green bin and put scraps on top of that. There really shouldn’t ever be a need to put food waste in red bin.
@Usernames: I agree.
I did take put some bones and meat in the neighbour's green been. We asked them if we can use theirs and they are more than happy for us to do so. Also, we offered our bin if they need to clear the garden or something.
For what it's worth, we compost 100% of our cardboard, tissues and paper. The worms love them! I think more people should have worm farms.
just put shit in green but that me
Please don't.
Put everything in the recycling or the green bin. For the green bin just cover your rubbish in grass clippings. They'll get the picture soon enough.
It all goes to landfill in Victoria anyway. Just takes a few years to get exposed.
Exactly this. The whole thing is a scam because no company wants our useless waste. Perhaps aluminium would be an exception.
Food scraps (veggie peels, banana peels etc) in the green bin :)
Surprised no one has mentioned an Insinkerator / Garbage Disposal unit. (where legal of course)
i'm in manningham and still have weekly.
I seriously don't understand how you can fill a landfill bin so easily with just the smallest amount of curbing buying usefu sh*t and making use of your green bin.
Hell before the redcycle scheme went under, I wouldn't fill a small red curbside bin for over a month.
I remember 10 years ago, my LGA replaced the 120ltr bins with 80ltr "for the environment" or whatever.
Turns out they land-filled all the old plastic bins :(Then 10 years later (in VIC), the government here banned single use bags, so now people pay 15c for a thicker bag, but still land-fill it, increasing the plastic content in landfill here lol
The plastic bag thing is more age-related. I've only seen 60+ people throwing the 15c bags out every time without reusing them. But if you lived in QLD, that's every fourth person you encounter…
it's a win if accompanying a reduction in the rates.
We're on the same schedule now with the small red bin twice a month and a recycling and FOGO/green each week, at first thought it would be difficult but it really is a non-issue unless you forget a few weeks of red bin collection.
Can pay for the bigger waste bin if you've got larger than average garbage requirements, seems fair enough to me.
The golden years of us paying china to take all our trash are drying up, time to take care of it ourselves i suppose.