Scant support for fortnightly red-lid bin collection among Mercury readers

Wollongong City Council on Tuesday put the idea of fortnightly collection on the agenda with a media release encouraging comment on its Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy 2024-2034.

Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said reduced collection of red-lid bins had been "a key theme" in consultation with residents, a claim also made in the council's engagement report for its waste strategy.

But when asked to specify how many people mentioned this during the consultation period, the council was unable to say.

There were some "key themes" in comments from Mercury readers, and the themes were along the lines of "Don't be ridiculous".

By noon on Wednesday there were 63 comments against the proposal on the Mercury's Facebook page, against less than a handful that could be viewed as potentially in favour.

Many of the comments against were strongly worded.

They included comments such as: "No-one wants that", "That's absurd", "How can anyone think this is a good idea seriously", "No way we are a family of 6", "No chance baby nappies in there for 2 weeks", and "They do it on the north coast and in summer every bin is swarming with maggots, EVERY BIN".

There were four comments along the lines of "In that case give me the larger bin for free", and four were along the lines of "Maybe if you halve my rates". None expressed solid support for fortnightly collection.

Facebook comments are in no way a scientific representation of the public's opinions on any issue. But the fact these have been so strongly one-sided raises questions about how the city council's consultation identified "key themes" in favour of fortnightly collection - enough that these opinions made it into the draft waste strategy.

The Mercury asked Wollongong City Council how many people mentioned fortnightly collection during the consultation. WCC couldn't say.

"Red-lid bin collection frequency was key theme in the qualitative feedback relating to the four goals of the strategy," a council spokesman said.

"As we didn't ask a specific question relating to whether people wanted a change to their red bin collection frequency, we do not have exact figures.

"We know some in our community currently need a weekly red-lid bin service. We also know, from audit data, that 30 per cent of red-lid bin contents is organic matter which belongs in the green-lid bin. Others have their household waste management to a point where they don't need a weekly service."

No changes to collection are happening yet.

But with FOGO (organic waste) collection successfully increasing, there could be less need for the waste-to-landfill (red lid) bins, and a pilot scheme where people could opt in for fortnightly collection was suggested in the council's draft strategy.

The Mercury asked the council if it could guarantee any reduction in frequency would only be on an opt-in basis. It could not.

"This strategy proposes to investigate the frequency of collections and explore how we can reduce the amount of general waste that needs collecting," the council spokesman said.

"Whether this is opt-out, opt-in or involves rebates are all avenues to explore with the community as we work towards extending the life of our only landfill facility, Whyte's Gully.

"Ultimately, we all have to think differently about how we much we consume and the waste that generates. That's what this strategy is about and we encourage the community to review the proposed ideas and share their feedback."

Facebook comments from Kiama and Shellharbour, where bins are collected fortnightly, strongly warned Wollongong against accepting this arrangement.

Waste collection is funded from a separate and dedicated fee paid by households at the same time as council rates.

There were two comments somewhat in favour of the idea on the Mercury website, saying there would be less need for landfill bins as FOGO increased. One of these comments was from a fake name used in prank calls on TV sitcom The Simpsons.

On Tuesday Wollongong City Council said the waste strategy 2024-2034 "was developed following recent community consultation with residents".

It would be investigated over the next 10 years.

The engagement period was held from May 2-20, and the 10-year strategy report was ready to be approved at the June 24 council meeting.

Whether those commenting on Facebook will make the effort to have their say on the council's waste strategy for 2024-2034 remains to be seen.

Other, perhaps less controversial, ideas in the ten-year strategy included a community repair hub, a potential solution for soft plastics recycling through the kerbside collection system, and increased FOGO collections for apartment buildings.

Wollongong Council's draft Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy 2024-2034