Review of Kerbside Rubbish Collection

Consultation has concluded

Within the District Council of Yankalilla area, kerbside rubbish collection is undertaken by the Fleurieu Regional Waste Authority. This authority is a subsidiary of the Alexandrina, Victor Harbor, Yankalilla and Kangaroo Island Councils and provides this service within all four Council areas.

The Fleurieu Regional Waste Authority wants to obtain the views of residents and ratepayers within the Yankalilla Council area on the current level of service that is provided for rubbish collection and also on possible future options for kerbside collection (including general/household waste, recycling and green waste).

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Consultation has concluded

The background to Kerbside Waste Collection

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CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.

Regional Kerbside Bin Audit

In May/June 2012, the Fleurieu Regional Waste Authority (FRWA) undertook a regional kerbside bin
audit of selected properties within the areas of Alexandrina Council, Kangaroo Island Council, City of
Victor Harbor and District Council of Yankalilla. The audit found that 55% of the general waste stream
consisted of potentially recyclable materials (28% recyclables and 27% food/green waste). On the
basis of this, FRWA recognized the potential to encourage diversion of waste from landfill by altering
the bin collection schedule: increasing the collection of recycling and green waste from 4‐weekly to
fortnightly and decreasing the collection of general waste from weekly to fortnightly.

Fortnightly Kerbside Collection Pilot/Trial

FRWA’s constituent councils supported a Pilot/Trial of fortnightly collections within a small selected
area (crossing the boundary of Alexandrina Council and City of Victor Harbor) comprising of
630 dwellings. The project ran for four months, from 2 October 2013 to 22 January 2014, allowing
the effects of fortnightly collections to be evaluated both during times when few holiday makers are
present, through to the peak summer holiday season.

The Pilot demonstrated that the altered bin collection schedule increased the diversion of waste
from landfill by the permanent resident population (FRWA, 2014). This has the potential to mitigate
cost increases for waste management into the future and make better use of resources. Fortnightly
collections have already been successfully implemented in another region of SA, interstate and
overseas, as discussed further in Section 2.
Identified Issues

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CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.
The Pilot identified issues with fortnightly collections as well as solutions to those issues. This report
details a strategy for the successful introduction of a fortnightly kerbside collection schedule across
the FRWA mainland area, which is based on the outcomes of the Pilot. The following issues were
identified by the Pilot and are addressed in this implementation program, with associated budget
implications:
- Large households and households that produce nappies – to be addressed with changes to FRWA’s existing additional bin policy.
- Holiday homes – holiday home owners have stated that weekly collections of general waste are necessary over the full six weeks of the summer school holidays. Changes to FRWA’s additional bin policy, to allow a seasonal payment, are also proposed to assist holiday home owners. The practicalities of a paid on‐demand pick up service and a ‘put your bins away’ service are also considered.
- Households that don’t already have a recycling or green waste bin – it is proposed to offer a temporary subsidy for bin purchases during the introduction period of a permanent fortnightly kerbside collection schedule.
- The introduction of a kerbside green waste service in DC Yankalilla is essential to the successful implementation of mainland fortnightly general waste collections.
- For rural households that remain without kerbside green waste services, the provision of subsidised composting equipment (compost bins and worm farms) and education is essential.
- Provision of benchtop kitchen caddies ‐ whilst this is not essential to the success of fortnightly collections, the kitchen caddies trialled during the Pilot proved very popular. It is proposed to offer subsidised caddies to ratepayers who wish to collect one from a convenient location and also to hand out free caddies to ratepayers who participate in education sessions. Consideration is also given to the on‐going provision of compostable bags.
- Education – a comprehensive education program is essential to the success of such a significant change to waste collections. The education program includes costings for FRWA to produce educational materials (brochures etc.), to cover staff to answer enquiries (telephone, email and letter) and run education sessions, and to cover a broad range of media advertising.
- Administration – additional funding is also required to cover administration costs, for activities such as additional bin program administration, bin sales and caddy provision, as well as ongoing liaison with council customer service staff.
Consideration of Options

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CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.

The FRWA report focusses primarily on the logistics and costs of implementing fortnightly collections. (Open your copy from the document library) However, in order for councils to make an informed decision regarding the future of waste collections across the mainland FRWA region, it is necessary to compare the costs and benefits of fortnightly collections with the costs and benefits of other possible collection schedules.

The costs presented in the Discussion Paper only included the cost of collections and did not include costs for disposal, change management or subsidies. We are now paid for the recycled material collected and this means that recycling is now much more cost‐effective than landfilling. This will have an impact on the relative costs of the different options, as some options provide ratepayers with more opportunity or incentive to recycle than others.

Four options, consisting of ‘no change’, ‘fortnightly collections’ (as per the Pilot), ‘increased service’
(increased recycling and green waste collection) and ‘increased recycling service’ (increased
commingled recycling only), are costed and compared in Section 4 of this report. The cost projections
include estimates for disposal, education, administration and subsidies (where appropriate) as well
as collection to allow councils to make a fully informed decision.

Review of Kerbside Rubbish Collection

The background to Kerbside Waste Collection

Identified Issues

Consideration of Options

FAQ

Key Dates

Document Library