Hobsons Bay councillors this week voted to increase waste collection fees by 28.5 per cent rather than the 17 per cent flagged last month, due to the China recycling crisis.
The council said the proposed new increase would reflect the true cost of waste removal as a result of China’s ban on low-quality recycled paper and plastics.
The draft budget for 2018-19 originally proposed a $30.30 increase to bring the charge to $200.
Fees are now set to rise by $48.60 to $218.30 for those with a 120 litre garbage bin and 240 litre recycling bin, and by $51.75 to $232 for those who also have a green waste bin.
An officer’s report stated the new waste charge would pass on to ratepayers the $760,000 increased cost to council.
Cr Colleen Gates said the increase was still “good value” compared with other councils.
“I’m comfortable with supporting a 28 per cent increase rather than the original 17,” she said.
“The proposal here is to pass on what we think will be the true cost of waste removal and we will be able to review that in 12 months time.
“The proposed cost to our residents of $232 per year – that’s for all your waste removal for a whole year – is still good value for our ratepayers when you compare against, say, Brimbank, which is $330, or Boroondara, $400.
“So, whilst it will be a cost that some people will not be happy with, I think in comparison to other municipalities, it could be worse.”
She said it would provide incentive to households to reduce contamination of recyclables, which averaged 12.4 per cent over six years of the 10,000 tonnes collected annually.
A recent audit by the council’s recycling contractor, SKM Industries, found that the presence of bagged domestic waste in yellow bins indicated that some residents were using the recycling bin as a rubbish bin.
The bag usually breaks during the collection and sorting process, contaminating the load of recycled material.
The audit also found that textiles, which cannot be recycled, were increasingly appearing in the yellow bins.
