Keen gardener Tori Hennig of Evatt is the first of thousands of Belconnen residents to receive a green bin. Photos: Glynis Quinlan.
Keen gardener Tori Hennig is looking forward to an easier time maintaining the large garden around her 50-year-old Evatt home after becoming the first of thousands of Belconnen residents to receive a green waste bin.
Gone are the days when Ms Hennig will have to struggle to reverse her trailer to the green waste drop off point and she also believes the new green waste collection service will greatly benefit those who don’t have trailers, particularly elderly garden lovers.
Ms Hennig is one of 4,253 Belconnen residents who have signed up for the service since registrations opened on August 1.
The rollout of the first green bins to those who have signed up began on Monday (August 13) and the first collections in Belconnen will start on September 3.
Tori Hennig receives her new green bin.
Ms Hennig said she has a lot of large established trees and fruit trees in her garden and has been looking forward to receiving the green waste collection service – registering as soon as she received a notice about it.
“We have one at our coast house and we just love it,” Ms Hennig said.
“I’ve got a lot of very large established trees and there is a constant amount of debris they drop – it’s going to allow me to easily dispose of that.”
Ginninderra MLAs Yvette Berry and Gordon Ramsay were on hand for the delivery of the first green bin, with Ms Berry saying the fortnightly service will “help residents keep their gardens clean, tidy and looking amazing”.
Ms Berry said that Belconnen is quite a bit older than Tuggeranong, adding to the appeal of the collection service.
“We have lots of big blocks where people have large gardens and large trees and so I think there has been a very enthusiastic uptake here in Belconnen for green bins,” she said.
Ginninderra MLAs Gordon Ramsay and Yvette Berry assist Tori Hennig (right) in putting green waste into her new bin.
Mr Ramsay said the service provides benefits for both householders and the ACT generally.
“There’s been a number of wonderful things to come out of it. Certainly one of those is that it helps people with their time – people don’t have to be packing things off in the trailer or the back of the car and heading down to the green waste area,” Mr Ramsay said.
“But it also means that the green waste that does come can be mulched together and used as part of the landscaping across Canberra as well.”
Mr Ramsay said that the service has been extremely popular to date, with nearly half of all households in the pilot areas of Weston Creek and Tuggeranong joining the scheme.
“It is pleasing to see that 22,500 households out of 46,500 in these pilot areas want a green waste bin,” Mr Ramsay said.
“Weston Creek and Tuggeranong services are fully operational, with Belconnen starting in three weeks.
“Residents including those living in the older suburbs of Holt, Cook, Kaleen, Macquarie and Hawker as well as newer suburbs like Lawson can register to receive a green bin for a one-off $50 fee, or free for eligible concession card holders.”
Belconnen residents registering between August 13 and 21 will receive their bin between September 3 and 14. Following this initial period, residents will receive bins within five working days of registering.
Tori Hennig’s pet dog tries to play his part by putting his stick in the new green bin.
Ms Berry said the Government was driving forward with its commitment to deliver green waste bins to Canberra residents with the roll-out across the rest of Canberra to occur by mid-2019.
Transport Workers Union ACT sub-branch secretary Klaus Pinkas said the green waste collection initiative has created more jobs for the union’s members.
“All the people who pick up the kerbside bins are our members and so obviously the more bins that are out there the more work for our members so this is a good initiative of the ACT Government as far as we’re concerned,” Mr Pinkas said.
In terms of the challenges in doing the work, Mr Pinkas said they include people putting wrong material in the green bins or trying to pack too much in.
“It’s the same as with other bins – people jam stuff in the bins and they don’t empty properly. It just slows the whole process down and so people have to have a little bit of common sense,” Mr Pinkas said.
For more information or to register for the green waste service, visit www.tccs.act.gov.au.
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