An Albion resident has taken it on himself to survey other residents after the council cancelled its annual green waste collection.
Christopher O’Neill conducted the online survey last week over a 24-hour period, asking residents on Facebook to have their say.
Mr O’Neill said he was not happy about the council’s decision to drop the collection and residents had not been notified.
“We use it and a lot of people in our area use it,” Mr O’Neill said.
“And just looking at the community at the moment, I’m already seeing people put [green waste] out, which means they’re ready to use the service because they know it usually happens at this time of year.”
Mr O’Neill surveyed 100 residents and found more than 67 per cent use the yearly green waste service.
He said the survey also showed 89 per cent of respondents had not been notified about the cancellation of the service.
“Brimbank, as a whole, has a very big issue with hard rubbish and dumping of waste,” Mr O’Neill said.
“Removing another avenue for people to remove their waste gives them another reason to dump it, which is moving backwards not forward.”
Mr O’Neill has sent his survey results to the council in the hope of getting the service reinstated.
Brimbank’s infrastructure and environment director Paul Younis said only a third of residents used the service in comparison to 50 per cent of residents who had opted for a fortnightly kerbside green waste collection.
“Council appreciates that those residents who utilised the annual bundled green waste collection will be disappointed in the change,” Mr Younis said.
“However … there is a preference to use the fortnightly green waste bin.”
He said the costs saved by discontinuing the annual bundled green waste service would be absorbed in other aspects of the budget, including maintenance of playgrounds and streetscapes.
He said residents had the fortnightly kerbside collection as well as the option for an at-call bundled green waste collection, which is a user-pays service.
