RUBBISH IDEA TO CUT BINS
Council considers money-saving plan to remove about 400 regional public bins
THE humble rubbish bin is the target of a Cairns Regional Council budget razor gang with hundreds of public bins in line to be trashed.
The Cairns Post understands as many as 400 of the region’s 1200 public bins could be removed as part of a plan to reduce the time and cost involved in collecting rubbish.
While household wheeliebins are collected by a contractor, council directly employs a small team of drivers to manually empty the vast number of street bins. The team works 365 days a year through all weather conditions. But the Cairns Post understands management is looking to reduce the number of drivers needed for the job to save up to $250,000 a year. It has already removed small bins from camping areas between Palm Cove and Ellis Beach, replacing them with fewer, larger bins. The council’s infrastructure services general manager, Bruce Gardiner, refused to answer questions about the number of bins that would be removed or how many jobs could be cut.
But Mr Gardiner confirmed in a statement the council was currently reviewing its public litter bins.
Mr Gardiner said the council was considering upgrading the capacity of the 50-litre and 80-litre bins to 240-litre wheelie bins.
“This will improve capacity, access and manual handling issues for collection staff,” he said.
“The review will recognise that bins at some sites are well utilised and need greater capacity, whereas others have no litter deposited in them for weeks at a time.”
Mr Gardiner said the trial of bin changes between Palm Cove and Ellis Beach had produced “positive results”.
“The objective of this review is to increase public litter bin volume capacity in strategic locations, improve collection staff safety outcomes through reduced manual handling, which reducing carbon emissions from the collection truck fleet by optimising the collection schedules and routes,” he said.