Be smart with your festive waste

GEELONG residents are being encouraged to use the range of options provided by the City of Greater Geelong to dispose of their festive season waste.

Illegal rubbish dumping costs the municipality’s ratepayers about $800,000 per year, while also negatively affecting the environment and public health.

The city’s resource recovery centres in North Geelong and Drysdale are open daily (except Christmas and New Year’s Day) and can take a range of items at no charge.

This includes excess household recycling, such as paper, cardboard, aluminium and metal cans, glass bottles and e-waste (any item with a plug, battery or cord that is no longer working or wanted).

The resource centres are temporarily not accepting paint due to the “overwhelming quantity of material being received in Victoria”.

For more information on recycling, head to geelongaustralia.com.au/recycling.

The city has added resources at the transfer stations to cope with increased demand in recent months, with above-average levels of recycling and waste received for most of 2020.

Cr Belinda Moloney, chair of the council’s circular economy (waste management) portfolio, urged people to consider the best way to minimise the amount of waste that goes to landfill.

“We know a lot more waste is produced over the holiday season and families can end up with unwanted items,” she said. “We want them to take advantage of the services that are available and to dispose of their waste responsibly.

“There are options, such as our hard waste collection, that are free and can be carried out without you even leaving home.”

Larger items can also be disposed of via the city’s book-in hard waste collection service, which offers households two collections at no direct charge each financial year.

Residents can book now to have a hard waste collection at their home from January 11.

The service can take up to three cubic metres of household items.

This includes up to two mattresses or mattress-style bed bases, which were added to the service last year.

For more information, head to geelongaustralia.com.au/hardwaste

According to statistics provided by the city, the hard waste service has maintained high levels of use during November and December, with bookings rising almost every week as more households clean up their homes and garages:

• November 2 – 458
• November 9 – 523
• November 16- 526
• November 23 – 524
• November 30 -570
• December 7- 589
• December 14 – 591