Maggot-filled bins, rats and rubbish strewn across the street could be the reality with council areas proposing changes to waste collection.
A growing number of councils believe reducing weekly bin collections to fortnightly could be the solution to saving money and reducing garbage rotting in landfills.
In Lake Macquarie, 150km north of Sydney, residents are still struggling to deal with controversial changes made in June 2018.
Households have had to adjust to getting their bins picked up fortnightly, with the only bin collected weekly being the green waste bins.
Other Lake Macquarie residents have posted images of their bins riddled with maggots due to the amount of time they are left sitting out
Residents were provided with white food scrap bins to keep inside the house.
A Facebook page has been set up protesting the idea called ‘Help bring back weekly red bin collection to Lake Macquarie City council’, with many complaining about the system.
While it has taken some time to get used to the new system, residents remain unhappy about the changes.
One furious resident took to the Facebook page to show a pile of her garbage accompanied by rats, with the caption: When you have a large family and cannot pay for a weekly red bin!’
‘Shame on you Lake Macquarie City Council.’
Other Lake Macquarie residents have posted images of their bins riddled with maggots due to the amount of time they are left sitting out.
In Melbourne, there are currently three regional and outer suburban councils picking up garbage fortnightly at the moment, with the City of Glen Eira in the city’s south-east set to be next.
However, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews slammed the fortnightly waste collections as ‘a rubbish idea’.
According to The Age, Glen Eira council recently consulted residents about the fortnightly collection and instead opting for a weekly pick up of green bins that only contain garden and food waste.
Households have had to adjust to getting their bins picked up fortnightly, with the only bin collected weekly being the green waste bins
A Facebook page has been set up protesting the idea called ‘Help bring back weekly red bin collection to Lake Macquarie City council’, with many complaining about the system
Meanwhile, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, residents are outraged that their bins are being reduced in size.
‘Is the Northern Beaches Council reducing the size of our bins?’ one user posted on the Northern Beaches Council Facebook page.
‘Is this because they want to charge more for ratepayers to get extra bins?’
‘Is Northern Beaches Council going to reduce their rates because they are reducing services?’
Other Facebook users were also angered by the size reduction, with one person posting: ‘The new 80L bins are too small!!’
‘What is cleverly hidden in the fact that the red bin that we as a family fill up every week, is now being reduced by a third!’ another complained.
‘Great improvement of service, you numpties, no change in anything apart from reducing your service by reducing the capacity by the most important bin by 33 per cent!’
There are three regional and outer suburban councils picking up garbage fortnightly at the moment, with the City of Glen Eira in Melbourne’s south-east set to be next
Meanwhile, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, residents are outraged that their bins are being reduced in size
A spokesperson from Northern Beaches Council told Daily Mail Australia the bins are smaller because there has been a new waste service introduced.
In 2016, Warringah, Manly and Pittwater Councils amalgamated to form Northern Beaches Council.
‘A majority of people in the three areas had the smaller bins anyway,’ the spokesperson said.
Manly and Pittwater already had the smaller 80L bins, which is why some residents found their bins had been reduced.
Residents are worried that longer wait times between waste collection and smaller bin sizes could cause more of a mess on streets as well as feuds between neighbors.
‘We are a family of four, who are diligent about recycling and also have a compost and worm farm,’ one woman wrote on Facebook.
‘Yet we are overflowing with rubbish since our bin was swapped for the new red lid ones.’
‘People are going to start dumping their rubbish in public bins or nearby unit bins.’
Skip bins service in Sydney
Looking for affordable cheap skip bins in Sydney? The 7 skips guarantees unbeatable customer service, exemplary customer support, radical transparency, and one-of-a-kind personalized skip bin hire service you’ll be hard pressed to find elsewhere in Sydney.