Page 647 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 1990
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The committee agreed with the Office of City Management that a long-term waste collection strategy should service the needs of the community through the provision of a sanitary system which conserves and protects natural resources and the environment, which is cost efficient and also economically viable, which has to be accountable and responsive to the changing needs of the community and which has to ensure a safe working environment for workers and that others are protected from hazards.
In Mr Wood's dissenting report he has indicated that we have an efficient current system. One of the big questions was: why change the present collection system? One of the drawbacks of the present system is that garden waste is not allowed in the small bins, thus placing the onus on householders to dispose of this type of waste either through paying private firms to remove it or by dumping it, and the current 55-litre bins militate against disposal of large objects. Householders are again required to find means of disposing of that type of waste.
A more efficient system would reduce the use of environmentally unsound disposal methods. The Office of City Management suggested that the collection of domestic waste needs to be rationalised to reduce the overall cost of waste management. It stated that it could happen through a reduction in the large number of individual trips by householders to the tip face and disposal sites, more efficient collection of all household waste and improvement to the occupational health and safety of collection workers.
The Australian Environment Council reported that back injuries caused by workers lifting 55-litre bins and injuries from sharp objects in the garbage have been dramatically reduced with the introduction of big bins. A three-person system is currently used on both the northside and southside collections which use the 55-litre bins. Two contractors from the northside told the committee that there had been very few injuries to workers using the current system, although one waste collector was killed after being hit by a truck.
The one-person collection system is regarded by the committee as being ideally the safest possible work system currently available in waste management technology. The committee received many submissions, many of which claimed that the most efficient and safest method for collecting domestic waste is using the one-person, automated system in conjunction with big bins. The current fleet of garbage trucks can be converted to a one-person collection operation using 240-litre wheelie bins, and five additional new trucks would need to be purchased at a capital cost of $2.8m. That costing is based on the rapid rail system, although other systems are available. I understand there are cheaper systems for various types of big bins.
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