Changes to Kerbside Collection Service

Residents and businesses on the kerbside collection service are informed that Council will be making changes to the service in June- July this year.  The changes will be a fortnightly collection service for all collections and the replacement of the current 140lt wheelie bin (for general waste) to a larger 240lt wheelie bin and the replacement of the 55lt black recycling crate with a 240lt wheelie bin.  All current bins and crates will be collected by Council and replaced with the new 240lt bins. For residents already on the fortnightly collection service, your current 240lt bin will also be replaced with a new 240lt bin. 

Council will mail all households and businesses on the kerbside collection service with the new fortnightly collection times and the dates for replacing the existing bins and crates once the exact dates are confirmed.  Council anticipate the changes will commence late June or early July this year.  You will be notified of the exact dates for the changeover in due course. 

Under normal circumstances there would be no price increase to allow for the new service, however, an increase of approximately 5% will be applied to the annual household collection service charge effective 1st July 2018.  This is necessary to meet increased costs of recycling and landfill disposal.  The increase in disposal costs are being experienced nationwide.  The increased costs to recycling are due to the recent import restrictions and bans imposed by China’s Green Sword Policy (China is the largest importer and processor of recyclables in the world). 

Council expect the changes will be a greater convenience to ratepayers and provide the opportunity to increase the recycling rate for Southern Midlands.   A full report on the rationale behind the change was provided to Council at the January 2018 meeting and is available by selecting the link below:

AGENDA 24 January 2018 Colebrook

Please note that the Southern Midlands are the only Council in Tasmania that is still using the open crate for recyclables.  The crates have been otherwise phased out in other Council’s in Australia – primarily due to their small capacity for recyclables and the issues associated with manual handling crates by households and contractors.

Posted Tuesday, 5 June 2018, 4.00pm

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