Bin collection problems are leaving some Adelaide residents frustrated, raising concerns about whether the fuel crisis is having an impact.
Some Adelaide residents are having issues with bin collections.
Mount Barker and surrounding Adelaide Hills residents have been having issues with their bins not being emptied properly, if at all, in the past week.
One person took their concerns to the online community to see if anyone else had rubbish and recycling remaining in their bins after being collected.
Some said they had experienced similar issues, while others claimed their bins had been “completely missed”.
Many praised the council for promptly collecting their rubbish after they had raised the issue and others offered advice, suggesting putting any heavy items at the bottom of the bin to ensure lighter objects didn’t get stuck.
Mount Barker District Council says increased fuel prices were not yet causing any issues.
Mount Barker District Council informed its ratepayers through Facebook that its kerbside waste contractor had been held up because of “unforeseen circumstance” one day this week so wasn’t able to collect bins that day.
“They’ve brought an extra truck into the district and any bins missed today will be collected first thing tomorrow,” the post said.
In response to the post, one resident directly asked the council if the fuel shortages – because of the war in Iran – affected the operators ability to collect bins as frequently.
The council said collections were continuing as normal “at this stage”.
“We will put out communications in the event of any variation to schedules or service levels,” it said.
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It comes as garbage collection bodies earlier this week said they had been left off priority fuel supply lists, news.com.au reported, threatening “potentially catastrophic” health and environmental consequences if bins were not collected because of a lack of diesel.
Waste Contractors and Recyclers Association of NSW chief Brett Lemin said in a letter to the federal energy minister that garbage and recycling trucks and processors were within days of exhausting their cash to pay for the skyrocketing prices.
As a result, councils would need to turn to homeowners to foot the bill for any shortfalls.
Mount Barker District Council was contacted for further comment about the issue and a spokesperson reiterated the increased fuel prices were not yet causing any issues.
“Currently we are not seeing any effect on the delivery of the waste service due to the fuel price increases, but we along with our contractor are always monitoring the situation,” the spokesperson said.
“The delay in collection earlier this week was due to an operational delay with one of the contractors’ vehicles which can happen from time to time.
“The collection of these bins was completed by early morning the following day.”
The spokesperson said bins do get missed each week for various reasons, including access, wrong items being in bins and overfilling.
“Recently our contractor has been training two new drivers who are still learning the runs and may have missed streets, but this has always been rectified within the required time frames of the contract once the waste contractor has been notified.”
They said there had also been issues with items remaining in bins after tipping, especially polystyrene and cardboard packaging that had been forced into bins.
“The waste contractor encourages residents if they are disposing of these types of materials that they put some heavier, loose items at the base of the bin, so it helps move this material out of the bin when tipped,” the spokesperson said.
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