Collection is wasting away

By Tania Martin
A BELGRAVE man believes postponing the last hardwaste collection of the year plays right into the hands of rubbish dumpers.
Gerard Doorakkers said the Shire of Yarra Ranges removing the November collection will lead to an increase of rubbish being dumped in the national parks.
But James Martin, shire manager of community relations, believes this claim is nonsense.
Mr Martin said the dumping of rubbish is an illegal activity which is in most cases opportunistic.
He said one example of this was when some old fencing material was dumped in the Dandenongs earlier this year.
“It is quite likely this was done by a fencing contractor and had nothing to do with the availability of the collections,” he said.
Marjory Thompson, also of Belgrave, said removing the November collection was an example of yet another service being taken away.
Ms Thompson said the same thing happened last year when the collection was moved from November to February.
“They (the shire) say we have two collections but because we didn’t have the November collection last year, we had one in February and then again in May which was too close together,” she said.
“It’s totally ridiculous to change the collection and not tell us.”
Ms Thompson said the council needs to consult the community if it is going to continue to postpone the November collection or make a decision to only have one a year.
Mr Martin said the hard wast collection last year coincided with the Christmas-New Year period.
She said residents were concerned about the amount of rubbish that would accumulated on nature strips over this time and as a result the collection was moved to February.
He said the same will apply this year with the collection commencing in April 2007.
But Mr Martin said the council conducted a survey into the level of support for green waste collection earlier this year and people were also asked about hard waste.
He said the majority of people indicated they wanted one combined hard and green waste collection and one separate green waste, which the council is currently offering.