December 1, 2009
Households have thrown out nearly three times their normal rubbish for the current bulky goods collection across the Tamworth Regional Council area.
The massive throwaway has left both council’s waste contractor and its own recycling collection trucks strained in resources to handle the collection but Tamworth Regional Council says the job should be completed by Friday.
Final areas in east and north Tamworth, Oxley Vale and some city fringe zones are the last to be collected but TRC waste services manager John Davis says they are progressively being cleaned up.
Mr Davis says the bulky goods clean-up has seen three times the amount of household rubbish thrown out in an expanded service area since November 15.
He said the throw out had overwhelmed the contractor Transpacific Cleanaway and TRC and they had been playing catch-up since last week.
So far TRC has recorded 219 tonnes of household goods picked up in the city area and another 100 tonnes in rural areas such as Barraba, Manilla, Moonbi, Kootingal and Nundle.
This compares to 311 tonnes picked up in the whole of last year over three collections, including a flood cleanup and 160 tonnes recorded the previous year.
Cleanaway has so far delivered 4 5 truckloads of compacted material to the TRC landfill and 20 loads in rural areas. TRC so far has salvaged 49 smaller loads of throwout goods which go to the Buy Back or the scrap metal processing centres for recycling.
A meeting this week with Cleanaway executives from Tamworth and Newcastle will review the collection and look at ways to solve the dilemma of an extended period when rubbish is left lying on footpaths. TRC says the meeting will examine how to minimise the timeframe between throwout and collection and within the resources and service agreements the two have.
Mr Davis says the meeting will consider options available for future collections, including staggered collections across particular zones.
He said future delivery needed to ensure the arrangements get the most sustainable, efficient and cost effective outcome for the community.
TRC will also review community awareness and waste education tools in the wake of some collection abuses or problems. This includes households placing unacceptable materials out for collection, excessive volumes of waste. In some areas piles of rubbish have also been thrown out on the street where the collection service doesn’t even operate.
Residents should remember that fridges, tyres, hazardous materials, household rubbish that belongs in the wheelie bin, paints, oils and chemicals cannot be collected and need to be disposed of properly by householders.