Should councils provide more bins?

A large family in Townsville, Queensland has gone viral after one member of the household took to a community group web page demanding thew council provide the family with another general waste bin, as they produce too much waste for just one.

“Because let’s face it, how many people every week struggle to fit their rubbish in the bin?” the man wrote in his post.

“Especially a bigger family! And why not? We are all taxpayers, so I think we deserve it.”

The post has since been shared around Australia, with the family attracting many supporters, but more detractors.

Townsville City Council was having none of it, pushing back on the family saying they could purchase another bin if they wished, but that all households receive one waste bin and one recycling bin.

It has sparked a debate about the fairness of the ‘one bin per household’ rule. Should larger families get more bins? Or should it be on them to either purchase more bins or reduce their waste?

5 comments

 

"Should larger families get more bins? "

Absolutely not...pay if you want more bins...reduce your rubbish or have smaller families. Birth control comes to mind!

 

Our fortnightly recycling bin is often full, but our SMALL weekly rubbish bin rarely holds more than 30cm of rubbish in the bottom. Neighbours often fill the unused space. My mind boggles at the amount of rubbish produced by some families! :O

Gee I'm old, we used to have a small galvanised iron bin that was emptied once a week. It was about 2.5 cubic feet or 75 litres and today's bins are 240 litres. Of course we didn't have all the packaging that items come in nowadays, we had brown paper bags that doubled as lunch bags, we bought fresh, not frozen, and we flattened tin cans to reduce space. Anyway that's back then. We live next door to a large family (kids married and still at home) and they use our bins if needed. They always ask, even though once a bin is kerbside it can legally be used by anyone, and we always agree. That's what neighbourhoods are all about. Our council will provide a larger bin, at a cost, which would seem to be more sensible as the pick-up will still be one bin, not two.

If a family requires more bins they should have to pay for them IMO.

My council has a range of options.

https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/Services/Waste-recycling/Residential-bins/Change-your-bin-size

If no bin options available, reduce your waste or go to the tip.

Fewer bins should be the target, we have to start re-learning how to make best use of the resources available to us.

Bins should be allocated on the basis of how many people and the ages of the people in a household.  If you want an allocation above that, pay for it. If you can make do with a pick up every second week, get a service fee reduction.

5 comments



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