The City of Kwinana plans to wave goodbye to kerb crawlers and replace annual bulk rubbish verge collections with a pre-booked service to begin by 2025-26.
Councillors unanimously agreed to transition to a pre-booked rubbish collection service at Wednesday’s meeting.
The new system would allow residents to pre-book two collections of either bulk or green waste every year.
They would also be able to organise two pre-booked mattress or white good collections a year.
Residents could also forgo this option in favour of another green waste collection, however only 17 per cent of residents take advantage of this service.
There would also be the option to pay for extra pickups throughout the year.
This comes after the council conducted a review of verge collection services in 2023-24.
The change would save households an average 79 cents a year, according to the review.
Verge collection costs the council $2,506,547 a year while the pre-booked service is forecast to cost $2,339,494, a saving of $167,053 a year.
The council could also provide an option to book a skip bin but that would depend on the tender.
During debate at Wednesday’s meeting Mayor Peter Feasey described the bulk system as a “blight on the city”.
Mr Feasey said he campaigned for skip bins to be provided to residents two decades ago.
He did point out that there were only two providers of bulk rubbish collection in WA.
“It has made it difficult for them to source workers in this economy and given them a monopoly on costs and the services they provide,” he said.
Cr Erin Sergeant was concerned for kerb crawlers, saying the community would be penalised if they couldn’t collect free items from the verge.
She said many furniture items would no longer be reused and questioned if recycling had been factored into on-demand pickups.
Council development and sustainability director Maria Cooke said they had some success with its textile recycling scheme and would look into the best way to encourage the “circular economy”.
Deputy Mayor Barry Winmar said this process “would give us an advantage over other suburbs”.
“Driving around the metro area . . . we do notice there’s a build-up in other suburbs of verge waste, I can hold my hand on my heart and say Kwinana council is doing a lot better than other councils.”
Cr Michael Brown raised concerns about the future bulk rubbish collection service being able to organise enough pickups ahead of bushfire season.
Ms Cooke said during the tender process there would be requirements built in for the supplier to meet high levels of demand during peak periods.