Update on rural waste measures

Published on 18 October 2018

Rockhampton Regional Council today provided an update on waste services to rural areas following the closure of the roadside bin stations across the region earlier this month.

Waste Committee Chair Councillor Neil Fisher said Council had been working through the service change with the community.

“There’s no doubt this is a massive change for our rural communities and Council is doing everything it can to transition those areas to safer options to dispose of their domestic waste and recycling,” Cr Fisher said.

“In Marmor and Bajool, as well as Westwood, Bushley and Gogango, we’ve introduced an interim Sunday service which is going well over the past two weeks.

“This service sees a weekly waste truck and fortnightly recycling truck parked in each community for two hours for residents to dispose of their domestic waste and recycling while transfer stations are being built.

“In the Alton Downs and Ridgelands area, we extended the opening hours at the Waste Transfer Station and we’ve already seen a massive increase in users of the facility.

General Manager of Regional Services Peter Kofod said a survey to introduce kerbside recycling in Alton Downs, Ridgelands and areas of Pink Lily had now concluded with a report to go to Council next month.

“What we’ve seen from the results though is that out of 757 surveys sent out, we received 177 ‘no’ responses and 92 ‘yes’ responses, so Council will not be introducing a compulsory collection service.

“What we will do though is investigate over the next few weeks whether we can deliver a kerbside collection service for those people who voted ‘yes’ and that will form part of the report back to Council.

“This will consider the questions the community have raised through this process about whether trucks can safely service these rural roads considering speed limits and access, as well as the frequency of any collection,“ Mr Kofod said.

Acting Mayor Cherie Rutherford said Council had also advocated for the state government to introduce a reduced waste levy in regional areas when it starts next year.

“Our Waste Manager actually presented at last week’s hearing in Rockhampton to call for a reduced levy for regional areas like ours to reduce the impact on rural ratepayers who use a commercial service.

“We’re pleased the State Government has already listened to the feedback from Councils across Queensland by adding waste streams such as self-haul and parks and streets to the advanced payment and we look forward to that conversation continuing in the coming months,” Acting Mayor Rutherford said.