HAS BIN CHANGING

punctured) in the bottle,” Mr Cunningham said.

“And if it’s aiming the right way, it’s like a sprinkler and it’ll go all over the top of the truck, all over the windscreen and over your mirror.

“Really covers it, your door handle, runs downs your windows – it’s shocking.”

If this happens, it’s back to the depot for a wash down with a pressure hose.

There are now metrics that intricately track the performance of the council’s waste services.

In the three months leading up to September this year, 18,311 tonnes of household waste was sent to Stuart landfill. For perspective, that is the combined weight of more than 3000 adult elephants.

This doesn’t include commercial, industrial, construction or green waste. In total, 67,512 tonnes of waste was sent to Stuart landfill in the September quarter.

In that same time frame, 2533 tonnes of waste was recycled in Townsville and Magnetic Island.

Work hours have increased through the years, as the city has grown, from four-day weeks to shifts that start at 5.30am and end when the last bin is emptied.

The men, gauging from the calls that come through to the office, don’t think people appreciate the work they do.

“You hear more complaints than you do positive feedback,” Mr Donald said.

Residents will complain if a wheel is broken, if a bin has been knocked over, or there aren’t any free doggie bags for poo at the park.

Mr Cunningham said: “They’re straight on the blower if you leave even one piece of paper on the ground.”

Mr Donald said often he would put a new roll of doggie bags in at The Strand and by the next day someone would ring and say that there were none left.

They’d like the public to be more tolerant.

“There are a lot of bins to pick up every day, and they do their job the best they can, these boys,” Mr Cunningham said.

“We do cop a from the public.”

The garbos miss fewer than one bin in every thousand they pick up, according to council data.

And if they do, 95 per cent of the time or better the issue is rectified within a single business day. lot of flak

The days of being gifted cartons of beer are long gone, but

tonnes of waste collected in the September 2019 quarter

tonnes of this waste was sent to Stuart landfill.

tonnes diverted to recycling.

requests to replace or repair bins received in 2018/19 financial year, a significant increase from 2017/18 owing to the February monsoon.

of these requests were fulfilled within three business days. every now and again residents go out of their way to pass Townsville’s waste collectors a can of soft drink as a token of appreciation.

Mr Donald said “some sort of interaction” with the public still occurred while they were boxed in their trucks.

“Kids love the truck. Every day I’ll go past 50 or so houses and they know what time you do their street, and they’re out there waiting to see you,” he said.

“And so you give them a wave and beep the horn.”