Bathurst Regional Council's third bin decision on the nose for some ratepayers

While many ratepayers think it’s a great idea, there are those who say they don’t want higher rates to pay for a service they don’t need. 

However, mayor Gary Rush said yesterday because of the logistics of waste collection, people can not opt out of the service.

He said the reduction of food and green waste into landfill needs to be a community effort. 

However, Raglan residents Robyn and Geoff Lewis said they had already significantly reduced the amount of waste they put into landfill and don’t see why they should have to pay for a council service they would not use.

“We really do feel very strongly about it,” Mrs Lewis said. “We do not put any food waste into our bin, so why should we pay extra.” 

She acknowledges that some rate-payers might want the service, but says her general garbage bin is almost always empty because they feed their food scraps to their animals and dispose of their greens waste on their farm. 

“We have a farm at Cowra and take our green waste there,” Mrs Lewis said.

“We also use our green waste voucher at the tip.”

Mrs Lewis said there was no reason for them to put any food at all into the garbage bin. 

“It all goes into mulch bins and to feed our animals,” she said.

Mrs Lewis added that while their general waste bin is usually empty, some people’s bins are overflowing.

She said that was why she believed very strongly that a third bin should be an option only.

Those who don’t want it should be able to opt out and not have to pay extra on their rates, she said.

“Our rates are already quite high. We don’t need extra charges on top of that,” Mrs Lewis said.

“The money would be much better spent if council used it to fix the footpaths.

“We would be happy to have a fortnightly collection for both general garbage and recycling.”

Cr Rush said the transition to the new service would be easier for some because they were already turning food and green waste into compost. 

Cr Rush said potentially the new service would result in a rate increase, however, if it was well supported, this could be offset by a cut in the general waste rate.  

“Whenever you introduce a new process you need to allow time for it to bed in and receive acceptance,” Cr Rush said. “We hope over time people accept it is a good thing to be doing.”