Types of Hard Waste

There are two main types of hard rubbish (hard waste) collections; these are Area-wide or booked collections.

An Area-wide hard waste collection (also known as blanket or scheduled collection) involves collecting hard waste from the whole municipality over a defined period. All residents are notified by household notice, internet and/or council calendars. The hard waste collection crew then drives along all residential streets and collects hard waste piles from all residential properties. Councils normally provide an area-wide collection once or twice per year. A booked hard waste collection (also known as at call collections) involve the resident booking a hard waste collection with Council. The collection will then take place the following week. Residents can book a hard rubbish collection any time of the year. Councils will normally offer residents one or two free collections per year, with additional collections charged for to recover costs (user pays). Booked hard waste collections can be collected from the naturestrip or form inside the resident’s property. Sometimes Councils will provide an area-wide collection and user pays booked hard waste collections during the rest of the year.

Booked hard waste collections can be from inside the property or from the naturestrip. It should be remembered that some properties don’t have a naturestrip to place waste on and others don’t have a suitable front yard for placing waste.

The advantages of an area-wide collection over a booked collection are:

• Area-wide collections have a high participation rate (approximately 70% whereas booked collections are around 30%)
• Area-wide collections are cheaper per individual collection than booked collections.
• Hard rubbish is only on Councils streets during collection (approximately 5 weeks) compared to booked collections where a long street may have booked hard waste piles out most of the year.
• Council only needs to provide customer service during collection period, the customer service is much simpler than a booked hard waste service.

The advantages of a booked collection are:

• As the collection is booked by the resident there is the option of collected from inside their property.
• Residents can book the collection when they want it.
• A booked collection service can be used to collect dumped hard rubbish.
• Less material is scavenged.

The advantages of collecting booked collections from the naturestrip are:

• Waste is close to the truck reducing manual handling;
• Quicker collection;
• Collection is cheaper than inside property.
• Less confusion about what is to be collected.
• Eliminates problems with claims of damage to property
• Removes need for workman to enter residents properties.
• Eliminates need to get through gates (which may normally be locked or contain a dog).

The advantages of collecting booked collections from inside the property include:

• Less scavenging
• Less chance of waste being dumped on
• Waste not on street reducing windblown litter and vandals making a mess.
• As waste is not on Council property, council does not need to deal with non-conforming waste.
• It is easier for resident to place out for collection.
• Less visually intrusive than on street.
• Eliminates issue of pedestrians needing to walk around waste.