Smelly bins cause a stink at Shire of Harvey annual general electors meeting

Local residents have asked the Shire of Harvey council to consider returning to a once-weekly general rubbish pick-up to curb smells and flies.

During the shire’s annual general electors meeting on January 27, a motion initially put forward by resident Geoff Rowe relating to the bin service in the region was passed, with residents and shire staff working together to word the three-part motion.

Part one asks for general waste bins to be emptied weekly, rather than fortnightly to “limit the flies and chance of diseases being spread by the dirty, green bellied bush budgies”.

The second part asks for the council to continue advocating to reinstate FOGO (food organics, garden organics) services in the shire, while part three requested the shire to advocate for State and Federal governments to address product packaging.

It comes after it was revealed last year that some FOGO collections in South West shires, including Harvey, were being tipped straight into landfill after contamination concerns stopped the local processing services.

The three-bin system is touted to help divert more than 65 per cent from landfill each year, with every household having a red-lidded general rubbish bin, yellow-lidded recyclables bin and lime green FOGO bin.

But as Australind resident India Stone supported the AGM motion, she said the burden on waste reductions was left to residents following the introduction of FOGO bins.

“I still have the same amount of plastic waste that I had when my bin was emptied weekly,” she said.

“My waste hasn’t magically disappeared and I do recycle, I do compost, I used it correctly.”

Describing the bins as “disgusting” and “unhealthy”, Ms Stone said emptying the general waste weekly would help solve the problem.

Councillor and chair of the Bunbury-Harvey regional council Wendy Dickinson said she was a firm advocate for FOGO.

Cr Dickinson said she had seen contaminated FOGO loads emptied, acknowledging not everyone agreed with the system.

“FOGO was a State Government initiative,” she said. “We endorsed it because we are trying to divert the amount of waste that is going to landfill.”

Cr Dickinson said with more education and more funding, FOGO was a system which could work.

Residents were informed during the AGM discussion that they could apply to the shire for an extra bin if they could not fit all of their rubbish in the bin provided.

The agenda for the electors meeting said all decisions made at the meeting would be considered at the next ordinary council meeting.