Kangaroo Island World
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Kangaroo Island World
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Dear Councillor,
I expect you have had heaps of correspondence regarding the new garbage collection system that has been in operation island wide since last July. The concept of removing our waste from the island is excellent. As you will now be aware, there is some fine tuning needed.
1. Community bins: I am employed on a casual basis by the Kangaroo Island Marine Centre and part of our duties has been to clean up rubbish in the wharf area. The new bins and pedestals do not secure the rubbish. The wind can blow lids open and rubbish out of the bins , onto the ground, into penguin nesting areas and into the sea. I have picked bins up that have blown off the pedestals onto their sides, with the contents being blown away. I have seen a bin have it's lid blown open with the lid acting as a sail, twisting the bin off it's pedestal. This was a bin that I had just replaced after picking it up off the rocks near water level between the large and small jetties. I assume other community bins are equally insecure.
2. Roadside litter: it is no secret the roadsides are now awash with litter, far worse than I have ever known on our island. When I discussed this with Daniel Rowley at the Field Day, he mentioned that Transport SA have the responsibility of cleaning the roadsides during their roadside maintenance program, and they have been tardy in doing so. The litter is getting there somehow though, and the problem really only surfaced after July 1 last year. Maybe it is a combination of adverse factors, and each factor needs to be addressed. Something for Council and Transport SA to work on together.
3. Cost of collection: those people who generate masses of garbage and recyclables are getting a great deal. They can put out 104 bins per year and are charged just $285 to have them collected, less than $3 per bin collected. This is a bonanza for them. For me, the cost of collection is ridiculous. I will have put out just three bins this financial year, two garbage and one recyclables. At $285 per year, that is $95 per bin collected!!! I am being seriously penalised for practicing 'reduce, reuse, recycle'. There are likely to be many other conscientious people being similarly penalised.
The charging system rewards those who contribute to the garbage problem, and penalises those who do the right thing.
Possible solutions could reduce the overall cost of garbage collection.
Concept: charge a fair price to all for garbage collection, and recover costs.
Method 1: laptop with the Solo driver, who enters the number of bins collected from each property. The extra time taken per property (seconds) is minimal compared to the time taken to drive to the property, stop, collect each bin and then move on. Data transferred to main database for addition to rates notices. Charge an amount per bin collected to attain full cost recovery, including admin, community bins and the tip.
Method 2: the recording could possibly be automated so the driver doesn't even need to enter the data. Each bin could have a microchip or bar code, and be recorded by a chip reader or barcode reader incorporated into the lifting mechanism. The investment in basic technology might have a huge benefit to Council, ratepayers and Solo.
Benefits: because customers are paying per bin collected, they are less likely to put out part filled bins, and more likely to wait until the bins are full. The driver could make 50, 100 or even 300 less stops per week. This would save time and cost, and more than offset the initial setup cost. The driver's working day would be shorter.
Residents might even try and reduce the number of bins collected by implementing more rigorous 'reduce, reuse, recycle' at home, eg, more composting.
After the initial investment the ongoing savings should be enormous.
I would appreciate your personal response to this email. In particular, I would be interested to know if you would support research into the problems raised and the solutions offered, or alternatives.
Kind regards,
Mal Ellson