Council
30 September, 2022
Yellow bins make triumphant return
Is your yellow recycling bin piling up every month before its pick-up day? No need to worry, shortly the yellow bins of the Yarriambiack Shire will be picked up on a fortnightly basis again.
Is your yellow recycling bin piling up every month before its pick-up day? No need to worry, shortly the yellow bins of the Yarriambiack Shire will be picked up on a fortnightly basis again.
Yellow bin kerbside pick-up will return on a fortnightly basis as of Monday, October 10. Subsequently, purple glass recycling bin kerbside pick-up will return on the less frequent bi-monthly basis as of last Monday, September 26.
The decision was made during the Yarriambiack Shire Council meeting on September 28 following council's distribution of recycling collection surveys in July this year.
Yarriambiack Shire mayor Kylie Zanker said the council received an "outstanding response" with the surveys, receiving 654 completed surveys, representing approximately 20 percent of properties in the shire.
"We rarely get that many, sometimes if we get 100 back, we think we're lucky, but getting an excess of 600 is amazing," she said.
"People were actually really passionate and they showed that with the information in their surveys."
Council plans to distribute more surveys in October 2023 to see how people are handling the new bin collection schedules.
Alongside the new kerbside pick-up, council also introduced free glass recyclable drop-offs at Council transfer stations during opening hours.
Additional glass bins are now available for purchase and will be charges at the same rate as the recycling charge, currently at $143.01 a bin per year.
"I know that people found (the purple bin introduction) frustrating ... for people with large households or recycle a lot more cardboard and such, they'll be delighted to have their recycling return back to fortnightly," Cr Zanker said.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the waste and recycling audit in six or 12 months time, just to see how everyone is going with (the new bin).
"I think within all of the (purple bin frustration) there were some factors that were quite interesting, like Covid impacts meant that a lot of people were buying a lot more terms online and some of those shopping habits are still there for people as well, which results in more waste."
The purple bin roll-out, which was announced to Yarriambiack residents in August 2021, commenced on July 1 after two successful trial runs in Minyip and Beulah in June.
Council noted in their agenda that "the perceived lack of public trust in the recycling system has made introducing new services more difficult."
However, the elusive green waste or food organics and garden organics (FOGO) bin is still on council's radar as they challenge state governments "one-size-fits-all" idea for green waste recycling.
"We're pausing on that at the moment because one size won't ft all across our shire, we know that already," Ms Zanker said.
"A lot of people have chooks or they compost so they won't have a lot of waste to put in those bins so we're waiting and hoping that there'll be a more appropriate thought process around how one size won't fit all.
"It's definitely wait and see for that one."