Source : the age
Sydney households could soon be hit with another cost-of-living pressure as local councils plan significant fee hikes for the cost of picking up household bins from city streets.
All but three of Greater Sydney’s 34 local councils are planning to hike residential domestic waste service fees from July 1 in a move that will see standard bin collection charges rise as high as four times above the current rate of inflation.
Red bin collection fees are set to rise across Sydney from the new financial yearCredit: Aresna Villanueva
Lane Cove Council is planning the largest increase of any Sydney council, with standard bin collection charges to rise from $560.90 to $637.76 a year – a $76.75 increase.
Other councils planning double-digit fee increases for standard services include Hornsby, with charges rising $58 to $631; Ryde, a proposed increase of $43 to $528.90; and Camden, which wants a $47 increase to $471.
Mosman Council – which already sets the most expensive household domestic waste fees in greater Sydney – has also proposed to lift its standard fees by 8 per cent, from $750 to $810 a year. Annual inflation was 2.4 per cent in the March quarter.
In NSW, local councils have the power to set domestic waste fees, which are charged on top of general rates bills and are meant to recover costs related to kerbside bin collection services.
Several councils have attributed the increases to rises in waste disposal costs as well as contracting price agreements, tipping and processing fees and government levies.
Phyllis Miller, president of Local Government NSW, said the fees were partly a result of increases to the NSW government waste levy that is charged to councils for the disposal of waste at landfill.
“The levy charged to councils is horrendous, and the only way for councils to recoup that cost is through domestic waste management charges we charge households,” Miller said.
“Councils are not out to make a profit, but we have to be able to recover the costs of delivering our services.”
Miller said other factors influencing waste collection fees include a growing shortage of waste processing capacity in NSW and the financial outlays associated with expanding councils’ waste to the collection of organic food waste.
The proposed increases come weeks after the release of a NSW government waste strategy that is partly aimed at addressing a growing shortage of landfill capacity to service greater Sydney.
NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said that unless the shortage is addressed, waste collection costs would be expected to rise, which could result in households facing “intolerable increases” in the amount paid for bin collection services.
Other councils planning bin collection fee rises from July include Inner West Council, with a proposed $40 increase for standard services, and Randwick Council, which proposes a $41.40 increase.
Not all councils are planning to lift fees above inflation, with Canterbury-Bankstown and Waverley councils planning to leave their waste charges on hold and Georges River Council proposing to reduce fees from $613 to $600.
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