2019-12-10 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                              10 DECEMBER 2019


3.   Administration
Council staff administered the program which included:
  supervision of the contractor
  advertising of the service
  production of a brochure which was delivered to all residential premises
  developing an interactive map of collection areas for the Noosa Council website
  dealing with enquiries and complaints relating to the service
  organising services to address illegal or excess dumping
Council staff undertook an extensive community information program to help residents
understand what could and could not be placed for collection and how to place items on the
kerbside.
The Service generated 112 customer requests/complaints that required follow up and further
action from Council officers.

4.   Community Benefits
    It is a service that generally remains popular with large sections of the community.
    It provides an opportunity for the community to dispose of bulky waste material that may
      otherwise be disposed of via illegal dumping.
    The Service is useful for those that cannot transport bulky waste to the Resource Recovery
      Centre.
    The current method of delivering the Service is more cost effective when compared to other
      collection methods such as the ‘pre-booked on property service’ delivered by other
      councils.

5.   Challenges
    As with collections in previous years, the 2019 Service attracted large-scale roadside
      dumping in rural areas, which required extensive clean-up operations (see photos of
      examples).
    An emerging issue and concerning risk in 2019 was the dumping of materials and items
      containing asbestos. Five separate locations were subject to asbestos dumping. This
      resulted in an additional clean-up cost to Council of over $28,000. The perpetrators could
      not be identified in any of these cases.
    Other prohibited material was also regularly dumped amongst roadside waste piles. This
      included a rusted drum of herbicide, a small drum of unidentified poison, car parts,
      mattresses, oil heaters and tyres. Prohibited material was initially not collected, however on
      most occasions when those responsible could not be identified, the material was collected
      later.
    The amount of reusable goods that could be retrieved by Resource Recovery Australia was
      limited due to prior scavenging of material by the public. This included potentially reusable
      items being damaged beyond repair during the scavenging process.
    The scavenging process also often resulted in previously neat stockpiles being spread
      across footpaths. Items were often damaged, leaving micro-litter such as broken glass on
      footpaths and road reserves.
    The amount of steel collected was well below that of previous years. This resulted in a
      significant reduction in revenue back to Council from the on sale of that steel. This is due to
      the amount of scavenging by metal recyclers that occurs prior to the collection. If a weight
      comparison is made to last year, the extra uncontrolled scavenging of steel in 2019 had the
      potential to reduce Council’s revenue by around $53,000.
    It is a service that could be provided by existing local businesses such as skip bin providers
      and local handyman services.
    The Service in its current form does not align with Council’s behaviour change strategy that
      encourages pre-sorting and careful segregation and recycling of waste streams.

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