Green bins are due to land on Canberrans doorsteps within weeks, however residents living in multi-unit developments in the designated suburbs have been at pains to register for the pilot scheme.
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Residents Blue Range Park townhouses in Stirling have been in discussions with ACT NOWaste since September trying to sort out collection locations, how many bins would be allocated to the complex and how to prevent lines of green-lidded bins crowding the kerbside every fortnight.
Erica Collins was one of many in her complex eager to register for the pilot thinking it would prevent people dumping green waste from their townhouse gardens in to domestic rubbish bins.
However, she and other residents have been frustrated at the lengths it has taken to get a straight answer about how it would work and whether the green bin collection pilot would accommodate Canberrans in townhouses, duplexes and units.
"It feels like the government shot from the hip and promised something that had not been fully considered," she said.
With weeks to go before fortnightly collections begin in April, Transport Canberra and City Services staff this week devised draft guidelines for customers in multi-unit dwellings.
So far 5070 households have registered to be part of the green bin pilot, 200 of which are multi-unit residences all expecting the delivery of bind in mid-March and fortnightly collections to begin in late April.
The draft policy outlines those with individual mobile garbage bins, for domestic waste and recycling, can register for and receive an individual green waste bin.
A government spokesman said this would apply to people who place their bins on the kerb and those that store it inside the complex but outside their own residences.
But it is not as straightforward for those living in a complex with shared waste services, such as a large skip or waste hopper.
The policy requires body corporate or strata management representatives to contact ACT NOWaste and undergo a site specific assessment to determine the number of bins that should be allocated.
"Pick up for these developments will be a kerbside service as with all other dwellings, so we will work with body corporates where necessary to ensure larger complexes put the green bins out for collection," a government spokeswoman said.
"We thank residents for their patience while some of the technicalities around how the scheme will operate have been sorted out."
Ms Collins said after several months of frustration it was a relief to reach a resolution for her building.
"We are just lucky that we have a proactive strata manager who investigated the issue on our behalf," she said. "Had our strata manager not been proactive, we would have not found this out until it was too late."
