Media Response |

- City of Ballarat Acting Infrastructure and Environment Director Natalie Robertson

1. Would council consider bringing in a hard rubbish collection policy similar to the central goldfields shire council (provides a bi-monthly kerbside hard rubbish collection service in urban areas - on the first and third Monday of every month. The service must be booked in advance). 

The City of Ballarat currently has a transfer station which is open seven days a week. Council provides two vouchers per year to the householder and encourages them to sort their load, so they can maximise recycling and access the subsidised services such as Toxfree, e waste and paint.  

The cost of a hard waste service is a significant additional cost to all residents and does not encourage a full range of diversion of recycling and reuse which is available through the transfer station and other forums such as online recycling resale tools. 

However, Council will be investigating the type of material people need to dispose of and preferred access hours to our facilities. 

Part of these investigations will include assessing some of the more traditional methods of waste disposal and will include looking at the effectiveness of the tip vouchers, promotion events (e.g. free green waste week and half price mattress week), as well as looking at whether hard waste collection adds any value to the community for its excessive cost to all ratepayers.  

Council also needs to be conscious that we have a beautiful City with its green streetscapes and heritage buildings and placement of unwanted material may not only detract from the city’s presentation but also pose a public safety risk. 

2. What should residents do if they do not have a trailer to transport their rubbish to the tip? 

There is a range of local private companies that specialise in skip services and rubbish collection. We would encourage ratepayers who don’t have access to a trailer or cannot hire a trailer to utilise these businesses.  

3. Is two tip vouchers for free disposal of up to one cubic metre of waste enough for residents in council’s opinion? 

The cost of the vouchers is within the council waste management charge. Not all people in Ballarat use the vouchers and some people do multiple trips to the transfer station a year. The purpose of the vouchers is to encourage people to use the transfer station so on their visit they can see what materials can be recycled or diverted from landfill.