Uproar over garbage collector's unbelievable act
Residents in Sydney’s southwest are up in arms over a rubbish act caught on camera.
Shocking vision has emerged of garbos dumping recycling and household waste into the same garbage truck in the Canterbury-Bankstown area.
The footage and photographs have left locals furious that their recycling efforts have been for no reason.
"Why am I separating my recycling from my general waste when [the collectors] come along and mix it all up again," one woman told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"This morning I watched them empty the garbage bin by hand and drop the rubbish into the recycle bin, and then manually lift the recycling bin and load the contents into the truck," another resident said.
Decade old 'legacy issue'
Adding insult to injury, the Mayor of Canterbury-Bankstown has revealed that the practice has been going on for more than a decade.
Khal Asfour has blamed the area’s skinny suburban streets, saying they’re too narrow for the regular side-loader garbage trucks to turn around in.
"I can't have massive trucks going down these narrow streets doing six point turns, reversing out," he told 2GB’s Jim Wilson.
"There is a public safety element."
In the wake of the revelations, Mr Asfour has called for a "full and immediate review" into local waste disposal.
He explained that the waste service had only been brought in-house a year and a half ago, after being outsourced, and that they would now look into the cost and safety of an alternative solution.
Keep separating waste and recycling
Australia’s chief recycling body has hit back at claims from Mr Asfour.
"If you can get one [truck down a street], you can get two," Suzanne Toumbourou, chief executive of the Australian Council of Recycling told the Herald.
She says the situation is sending "all the wrong messages" to residents.
"This runs absolutely counter to the effort we’re trying to make across the country in creating those systems in running kerbside recycling," she said.
"What we really want is for people to have confidence that the effort they make to sort their rubbish is going to be rewarded by delivering strong recycling outcomes," she added.
She's urging locals to keep separating waste and recycling.
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