Work goes on for Council bin system

THE Mitchell Shire Council have officially reviewed the first six months of its transition to the four-bin kerbside system, acknowledging that while it’s a continued work in progress, they emphasise they are listening to feedback from residents.

The detailed report in the Council agenda prior to last Monday’s meeting found that 56.9 per cent of waste was diverted into landfill, up from 26 per cent from the previous two-bin service, something which Councillor Nathan Clark pointed out was a ‘largely successful’ result.

“A huge part of that has been the redirection of food-organic, garden-organic material into the green bin, which people in the Shire have been begging for,” he said.

“The result has been largely successful. Over the six-month period, 56.9 per cent of waste collected at the kerbside have been diverted from landfill.

Cr Clark also offered advice for larger families, in which the report had acknowledged that they had struggled with the new system, as well as younger families with nappies – leading to council meeting with a mothers’ group in May to understand how young families were coping with the change.

“There are options for large families to upgrade your bin as well, so if you qualify for that, I’d certainly encourage it. I do recognise and acknowledge that nappies are a problem in the community in terms of timing, the fortnightly pickup as well,” he said.

As part of the next six months of reporting, independent audits will occur to ensure Council can pick up on how full bins are getting, and whether there are contamination threats.

Cr Clark said it would allow Council to understand common themes as a result.

“Upcoming after this, there will be kerbside audits, where the experts go through the various bins and check for contamination rates, see what’s in there and give us a good idea of what’s happening in waste,” he said.

Councillor Ned Jeffrey said he understood resident feedback loud and clear.

“Sometimes I feel like the public sees us receiving these reports and acknowledging them, and their large level of complaints that were originally lodged when this program was implemented could be forgotten,” he said.

“I would like to say to the community that we have heard your complaints, they’re still very much front and centre.

Councillor Timothy Hanson said a significant success of the program was the MyMitchell application, with 12,000 downloads as of August 2025.

“We had a significant uptake in the downloads of the MyMitchell app when the bins came in, so that in itself is great,” he said.

“Anyone who doesn’t have the MyMitchell app should think about it. It’s great for kerbside collection schedules, reminders and a great way to see what we’re doing here at council.”

Councillor Bob Humm took note of the monthly glass collection, saying that understanding more data would allow Council to review the contract, given changes that has occurred in the rubbish industry since then.

“The glass situation – this contract was done out in 2023, prior to this council being put out, and prior to the 10 cents to know what impact that would have on the articles that are actually dropped off to the recycle centres,” he said.

“That’s impacting on our pickup, and the fantastic report that the officers did just recently is actually showing a lot of that information, and hopefully over the next six months, we’ll know a little bit more about it, and as far as the glass side of things go, we’ll be definitely looking very hard at that contract, because there is a major saving there for the ratepayers.

“If we can save our ratepayers a few hundred dollars a year, that’s great.”

Other findings from the report indicated that the bin inspection program found that while most bins were presented well, there were issues with minor contamination in the mixed recycling, glass and organics bins.

It was found that 17 per cent of inspected general rubbish bins had material which needed to be placed in other bins, however, Council noted a positive where contamination rate in food and garden organics dropped significantly, noting that the contamination rate had dropped from 12.4 per cent in April, to 3.5 per cent in October.