Hard rubbish should be left alone, councils say

IT IS one of the great debates: when hard rubbish is on the kerb, can you take it home?

With hard rubbish collections determined by individual councils, there are different rules across the region.

As residents prepare to use hard rubbish services and onlookers see tempting items on the side of the road, people are being asked to leave the rubbish alone.

City of Greater Geelong households are eligible for two hard rubbish collections each financial year, a service that has been well supported.

In the past financial year, Geelong residents made 32,689 hard waste bookings, with more than 17,000 mattresses collected alongside 826 tonnes of steel and 826 tonnes of e-waste for recycling.

These collections are designed for large items that cannot fit into the regular bin service such as mattresses, ruined furniture, white goods and electronics.

While the stacks of items might look tempting, the city’s interim executive director of city infrastructure, Amanda Locke, has reminded residents they should avoid picking through collection piles.

“A common misconception is that hard waste should be placed on the nature strip, when in fact items for collection must be placed inside the property boundary. This helps avoid confusion with dumped rubbish and allows our teams to focus on genuine illegal dumping issues,” Locke said.

“Residents should not remove items from another person’s hard waste collection, as they are located inside the property boundary. Even when a nature strip permit has been issued, we ask the community to please leave items in place to maintain safety and tidiness.”

If properties do not have adequate space within their property boundary for items to be stored, they can apply for a nature strip permit when requesting their collection.

For furniture items still in good working condition, Locke suggested people try posting them online for free or giving them away to community members before booking a hard waste collection.

While Geelong residents book their collection on case-by-case basis, the Borough of Queenscliffe runs an annual borough-wide collection day.

This year’s collection will be run in May, with the date yet to be finalised. Similar to Geelong, residents are asked to look at alternative options for their items before adding them to hard rubbish piles. A borough spokesperson also reminded residents to not take items from hard waste.

“Council asks the public not to take items from hard-waste piles due to safety risk as well as potential noise and environmental impacts. However, we strongly support reuse and resource recovery through safer, approved options such as local op shops, charity and reuse businesses, online swap groups and second-hand marketplaces.”

Shortly after this year’s hard waste collection, an e-waste drop off will also be run. Items with plugs, batteries or power cords that no longer working or wanted can be disposed of at that later date.

The Surf Coast Shire does not offer any form of hard rubbish collection.

Its website states geographical reach as a barrier to providing cost-effective hard rubbish collection services.

The shire does, however, provide three waste vouchers to ratepayers, allowing them one free drop-off of general waste and garden waste and one free pick-up of mulch annually.

These vouchers can be used to subsidise the cost of disposal fees at shire-operated transfer stations.