Waste relief as Council aims to reopen tip
Published on 15 April 2020
Council's General Manager James Roncon has thanked the community for their patience with COVID-19 (Coronavirus) lockdown measures, and said Council will look to ease restrictions on the waste facility in the coming fortnight.
To ease the burden on households in the meantime, from Monday, April 20 residents can use their green waste bins for normal waste and place them out alongside their general waste bins for weekly collection.
Over 20 Councils across NSW recently closed their waste facilities after a Health Order was passed instructing residents not to leave their homes unless it was essential to do so.
The NSW Government has since clarified that people may leave their home to visit a waste facility, however Mr Roncon said Council was not in a position to risk immediately reopening the facility.
"Waste is an essential service, but unlike other many other Councils we don't have the luxury of contractors when it comes to waste, everything is done in-house by our waste services team," he said.
"If one of our waste services crew contracts the virus then we will potentially have to shut down the whole facility for cleaning and place crew members into testing and quarantine.
"We would then be unable to conduct critical kerbside waste collection across the whole city and the community would be in an absolutely terrible position.
"The best way to protect our staff, the community, and our critical waste service is to limit face-to-face contact over the waste facility's weighbridge."
Mr Roncon said frustration around the closure was understandable, but reassured residents that Council was constantly monitoring the situation with a view to reopening the facility.
"We know our regular tip users are frustrated at this time, but we have to prioritise the continuity of the kerbside pickup service on which the whole community relies," he said.
"Community transmission of COVID-19 is our greatest risk at this stage, so we just want to monitor conditions over the next 10-14 days and ensure there's not a spike in cases locally after the Easter period.
"If we can get through that period we'll look to scale up public access to the waste facility once again, but in the meantime we ask people to be patient and understanding during this temporary closure."
Please note that the tip remains open for commercial waste, animal carcasses, and animal waste.