The opposition has called on the ACT government to commit to weekly rubbish bin collections in addition to food and organic waste pick ups, which are presently being trialled in Canberra's north.
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City Services Minister Chris Steel last month indicated weekly rubbish bin collections could be wound back to fortnightly collections after the food and organic waste program expanded across the city, following an assessment of the trial.
This has prompted the opposition spokeswoman on city services, Nicole Lawder, to call for the government to maintain weekly bin collections unless residents opt out of the service, and explore how a recyclable nappy rebate scheme could be introduced in the ACT.
The call comes even though the government has not committed to reducing its garbage bin collection schedule across the city.
No decision has been taken on the future of bin collection times when the organic waste service is rolled out across the capital.
The trial covers 5000 households in Belconnen, Bruce, Cook and Macquarie, across single-residential homes, townhouses and units. Waste collection has switched from weekly to fortnightly for trial suburbs; organic waste is collected weekly.
The government hopes it can reduce emissions from ACT landfills by up to 30 per cent by reducing the food and organic waste sent to its tips.
Ms Lawder moved a motion in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, calling for the bin collection schedule to be maintained and the government to reconsider the charge it imposes on providing larger garbage bins.
She said her motion was designed to get ahead of a government decision on the future of bin collections, to ensure vulnerable families were not left behind.
"[Some families are] a bit afraid they'll get smelly and overflowing bins with a fortnightly collection. If you happen to be away and you miss the fortnightly, that makes it a monthly collection, which is a huge gap between collections," Ms Lawder said.
Ms Lawder told a press conference the government needed to properly assess the feedback from its trial and remember that a one-size-fits-all solution would not work for everyone.
"Canberrans pay some of the highest rates in Australia, yet Labor and the Greens are reducing bin collections to once a fortnight," she said in an earlier statement.
"People living with a disability, Canberrans with infants and big families will be hugely disadvantaged by bins only being collected fortnightly."
An online survey for trial participants has already been established, and there is a dedicated email for people in the trial to provide feedback to the government.
The ACT government will also on Wednesday release a detailed survey to participants, the results of which will be made public as part of the trial process. Ms Lawder's motion will call on the government to make the trial results public, despite a previous commitment to do so.
Ms Lawder's motion was amended by Labor and the Greens on Tuesday to to drop the reference to weekly bin collections and instead require the government to "consider and address the needs of Canberra households that produce a large amount of waste in the design of the citywide service, potentially including free additional bin upgrades for those who need more".
The government will also release the results of its trial publicly and "investigate better environmental options for nappy waste as part of planning for the citywide FOGO service and report back in June 2023 on how this waste stream will be addressed through future household collection services".
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Mr Steel last month said the aim of the food and organic waste trial was to reduce the amount of organic material being sent to landfill that could otherwise be composted.
"That reduces the amount of waste in the garbage bin and that's why there's a fortnightly collection," he said, referring to bin collections for trial participants.
"It also causes people to rethink what they're putting in their garbage bin and whether that material can, in fact, be recycled in the yellow bin as well."
Mr Steel on Tuesday said the trial had been running for three months and the upcoming detailed survey would inform the city wide rollout.
"The whole reason that we're running a trial is to understand how households are adapting to the new FOGO service before we roll it out to the rest of Canberra, including any improvements that we might need to make to the scheme, including looking at larger bins for garbage now that they're collecting fortnightly," he said.
Mr Steel said maintaining a weekly collection for organic and landfill waste would cost more money and had not been the approach taken in other jurisdictions with organic and food waste collection.
Some families in the trial have reported the reduction in garbage bin collections has left them with overflowing bins and forced them to rely on family members in other suburbs to dispose of their refuse.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
