Page 2103 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2018
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City Walk, Civic, territory-owned city carparks and Braddon. Other centres visited once a week include Gungahlin, Dickson, Lyneham, O’Connor, Campbell, Manuka, Kingston, Mawson, Phillip, Tuggeranong and Erindale.
The introduction of green bins is another positive step in reducing leaf litter. Since the start of this program in April 2017, over 2,500 tonnes of organic garden waste has been collected from the pilot area, including the Tuggeranong extension. Green bins are an effective way for residents to remove leaf litter from within their own properties and ensure that leaf litter does not end up down the drain or on the street.
Ms Lee’s motion proposes an audit of the current program. Members will be pleased to hear that TCCS has already been undertaking an investigation on ways to optimise the street sweeping program and is already well progressed in doing this review. The street sweeping optimisation project looks at the entire stormwater cycle and the economics of removing and reusing the street sweeping material and gross pollutant trap material that if not captured has the potential to pollute our waterways.
The street sweeping optimisation project has been underway for the past 14 months gathering data in all seasonal conditions. The project focuses on street sweeping optimisation, analysis of gross pollutant trap and street sweeping material, investigation of beneficial reuse opportunities, and cost benefit analysis on the scenarios being developed.
Street sweeping optimisation has looked at the entire road network in the urban catchments of the ACT. The outcome looks at options to optimise the program without significantly increasing costs and estimates the amount of total nitrogen and total phosphorus that could be prevented from entering the ACT’s waterways.
The analysis explores the opportunities to maximise the amount of sweepings collected for beneficial reuse and identifies opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The study has analysed the physical and chemical composition of materials from gross pollutant traps and street sweeping material at five locations at four seasonal time intervals over the year. The results have provided information to inform research opportunities for beneficial reuse of the material and estimate the volume of material that may be available on an annual basis.
Information from an analysis of lidar technology, a surveying method that uses pulsed laser light, has been used to determine tree canopy, tree species within individual streets and suburbs and leaf density factor. With other inputs this has also determined the potential for and timing of likely leaf fall by location. This evidence is also supported by the pattern of fix my street submissions since 2013.
TCCS already responds to peak leaf fall in the inner north and inner south of Canberra’s suburbs by focusing and augmenting street sweeping to remove the bulk leaf litter during late autumn and winter. Additional plant machinery, such as bobcats, are used during these months to assist with bulk removal. This allows for the sweeper trucks to effectively clean the streets. Street sweeping, as I mentioned, is undertaken up to six times during these months in leafier suburbs.
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