Snowy Valleys to Trial Waste Disposal Vouchers
Published on 21 September 2020
Residents living in the Snowy Valleys will soon be able to dispose of household waste using a voucher system as part of a six-month trial commencing in January 2021.
A self-haul voucher system will be trialed across the Snowy Valleys in 2021 for six months entitling residents to drop off up to one cubic metre of general bulk waste at their nearest waste transfer station.
Snowy Valleys Council voted to trial the voucher system for a period of six months and have requested a follow-up report in June 2021 with a consideration, if the trial is successful to replace the existing waste weekends with the voucher system.
Mayor James Hayes said the current system of waste weekends seemed to encourage people to keep generating waste rather than to reduce and recycle.
“Moving towards reducing the amount of waste going to landfill and increasing education for recycling and reuse is a key objective of our Zero Waste strategy,” Cr Hayes said.
“Hopefully by trialing a voucher system people will take the opportunity and time to think not only about what they’re throwing away but also about what they buy. It will also provide our operators more opportunity to help with sorting and recycling,” he said.
The voucher system will provide households the flexibility to be able to do a clean-up and dispose of their waste themselves at a time that suits them.
During the trial residents will be able to choose any normal operating day to dispose of the 1m3(or 300kg) of sorted general waste.
Council’s Executive Director Infrastructure Heinz Kausche said that the amount of waste going to landfill from free waste weekends has increased significantly from when it was first implemented in 2014.
“The amount of waste received during a free waste weekend is approximately equivalent to the amount of waste for a whole year,” he said.
“The high volume of traffic over a waste weekend has also raised potential safety issues for staff and the public”.
An electronic system for the voucher management will be employed which will provide an easier transaction and process for both transfer station operators and residents.
“It is also hoped that a voucher system will allow our transfer station staff more time to assist residents with recycling their waste,” said Mr Kausche.
During the voucher trial period the 2021 Autumn and Winter free waste weekends are also planned to continue.
Council will initiate a media campaign to promote the new Voucher System, and more information on how residents can access their vouchers will be released in the lead up to the trial period beginning in January 2021.