Unlike the City of Rockingham, where a three bin system will be rolled out on Monday, City of Mandurah councillors decided on Tuesday night against introducing one in Mandurah.
According to councillor Fred Riebeling the system’s cost and environmental implications made it “not a goer”, and councillor Shane Jones said it was a “total waste of time and money”.
The City has had a two bin system in place since early 2000’s, with one bin used for recyclable waste and another one for general waste.
In a three bin system a third green bin would be added to the existing two and would be used for organic waste such as tree branches, plant cuttings and food leftovers.
The City was considering rolling out the new system in order to access the state government’s waste authority Better Bins Program which provides a $20 million funding pool for local governments to improve their waste collection system.
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It was anticipated that the program would provide the City of Mandurah with $1,140,000 each year for a period of two years.
However, due to the necessary infrastructure to support the system, the City of Mandurah would still need to pay more than $1 million from the City’s budget, and would require ratepayer’s waste bill to go up by $50.
One of the main downsides to the proposal was the City’s contract with Rivers Regional Council and Phoenix Energy to supply all its waste material to their Waste to Energy facility in Kwinana.
Adopting a new bin system would require the City to divert 37 per cent of their waste towards producing compost instead of diverting 90 per cent of its waste towards the facility.
Other concerns included the need to educate residents in using the new bin system properly, the lack of space available in small units to home a third bin and the increase in carbon emissions by adding a new rubbish truck to the current fleet.