It was the start of another Friday in Red Hill. Would-be gym-goers turned off alarms before Ethiopian coffee beans whizzed through fine espresso makers. Cars sped towards Civic, pondering paleo-diets and bilingual schooling. But unbeknown to most, something had gone out with the rubbish – never to be the same.
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"I put out the bins late last night [Thursday] as normal,'' Elizabeth Chisholm said, ''And when I came out at 10am to bring them back in, at first I thought, oh, that's not my bin. And then I realised, the lid had been replaced. The bin was the same but the lid was red.''
A spokesman for Territory and Municipal Services Minister Shane Rattenbury helped clear up the mystery. Early on Friday morning, a ACT NOWaste team tailed the usual garbage truck and replaced residents' green garbage bin lids with red ones.
The spokesman said the changes at Red Hill were part of a $1.5 million garbage bin and lid replacement program taking place over three years.
"Red lids are being installed on waste bins with broken lids as well as older bins in poor condition. This is being done by ACT NOWaste to bring ACT bins in line with the colour coding most frequently used elsewhere in Australia," the spokesman said.
Regular garbage bins under national standards typically have a red lid, recycling bins have yellow, paper and cardboard bins have blue and food and garden waste bins have green.
Ms Chisholm said her bin lid was not damaged and did not need to be replaced. "In my view it was very wasteful as there was nothing wrong with the old lids," she said.
The spokesman confirmed the retired bin lids would be recycled.
