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YARRA Ranges Council has scrapped its popular free green-waste tipping service this year, weeks from the start of the bushfire season.
Last year the council let residents dump their green waste for free at the shire’s four tips to encourage them to prepare their homes for bushfires.
Residents flocked to take advantage of the free service, with 13,800 vehicles dumping 12,700 cubic metres of green waste at the four transfer stations in Coldstream, Healesville, Wesburn and Lysterfield between October 10 and November 8.
The initiative cost the council $275,000 - and cost-cutting measures are the main reason it is being dumped. Mark Varmalis, council director of environment and engineering, said offering free green-waste disposal last year was a one-off, and came at significant cost to ratepayers.
Mr Varmalis said the council had determined that residents had become more aware of the need to prepare their properties for this summer when deciding not to re-run the free service. But Dandenong Ranges Community Bushfire Group president Jo Hirst urged the council to reconsider their decision.
Ms Hirst said dumping waste at tips was expensive, and offering residents the chance to dump it for free was a great way to reduce the fuel load in the area. But Mr Varmalis said the council had a range of initiatives in place to help residents prepare for summer, including a bundled-branch collection before Christmas, a combined kerbside hard, bundled-branch and metals collection early next year, and the optional garden organics fortnightly bin service.
He said the council had also developed a brochure to help residents identify how they could prepare throughout the year instead of waiting until summer.
YARRA Ranges Council has scrapped its popular free green-waste tipping service this year, weeks from the start of the bushfire season.
Last year the council let residents dump their green waste for free at the shire’s four tips to encourage them to prepare their homes for bushfires.
Residents flocked to take advantage of the free service, with 13,800 vehicles dumping 12,700 cubic metres of green waste at the four transfer stations in Coldstream, Healesville, Wesburn and Lysterfield between October 10 and November 8.
The initiative cost the council $275,000 - and cost-cutting measures are the main reason it is being dumped. Mark Varmalis, council director of environment and engineering, said offering free green-waste disposal last year was a one-off, and came at significant cost to ratepayers.
Mr Varmalis said the council had determined that residents had become more aware of the need to prepare their properties for this summer when deciding not to re-run the free service. But Dandenong Ranges Community Bushfire Group president Jo Hirst urged the council to reconsider their decision.
Ms Hirst said dumping waste at tips was expensive, and offering residents the chance to dump it for free was a great way to reduce the fuel load in the area. But Mr Varmalis said the council had a range of initiatives in place to help residents prepare for summer, including a bundled-branch collection before Christmas, a combined kerbside hard, bundled-branch and metals collection early next year, and the optional garden organics fortnightly bin service.
He said the council had also developed a brochure to help residents identify how they could prepare throughout the year instead of waiting until summer.
3 comments:
Interesting... I was searching this info for my uncle. He will be happy for such a great info. Thanks for sharing...
Ana
No problem, read the full article from the Local Leader newspaper.
Very interesting!!
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