Silly rubbish bin move

A MOVE by the Cairns Regional Council to cut the number of rubbish bins throughout the city is extraordinary.

The region is the gateway to two of the most pristine areas in the world – the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics’ rainforests – yet a decision to save money is likely to result in more littering.

It is believed the council wants to axe 400 of 1200 bins, expected to save $250,000 a year.

The council refuses to say how many bins or jobs will be cut to save money. Infrastructure boss Bruce Gardiner suggests larger and fewer wheelie bins will replace the smaller ones.

If anything, we need more bins to encourage people to use them to avoid littering the streets, parks, waterways and beaches.

Generally, most people are lazy. If we make it too hard, then we will just dump it anywhere, in gutters, garden beds, creeks, roads, streets and footpaths.

Already some of our pretty roadsides, such as the Captain Cook Highway between Buchan Point and Port Douglas and the Gillies Range road between Gordonvale and Yungaburra, are used as highway rubbish tips by people throwing stuff from their vehicles.

The result will be the council having to hire more workers to clean up the mess and that will cost more.

Cairns and the tropical north should be one of the cleanest and litter-free zones in Australia, if not the world.

Removing bins will result in a build-up of rubbish across the region.

It’s false economics, it’s shortsighted and smacks of penny pinching.

Just don’t do it Cairns Regional Council. Nick Dalton nick.dalton@news.com.au