A four-week shutdown of bulky waste services over Christmas is under review after a spike in waste and complaints.
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Port Stephens Council contracts the service to Suez which would normally perform 60 collections a day.
Since services resumed this week the council’s waste management coordinator Aaron Malloy said that figured had almost doubled.
“We’re doing about 100 collections a day now to catch up,” he said.
“We’re getting feedback from both sides – residents who want it (through Christmas) and the tourism industry that doesn’t want to see the collection in the holiday season.”
The bulky waste collection system was altered 18 months ago.
Instead of a fixed window for collections on a street-by-street basis residents must now call ahead to book a collection for either bulky household waste or green waste.
Residents are able to book two a year; either one general waste and one green waste or two of the one.
“We were only six months into the new system last Christmas because the take up hadn’t been that great straight away,” Mr Malloy said.
“We will review the system for next Christmas and possibly reduce the shutdown period.”
A single truck picks up both kinds of waste that is later sorted at the waste facility.
“It’s more cost effective to sort it than to run two trucks,” Mr Malloy said.
The free drop off day for green waste at Salamander Bay, Lemon Tree Passage and Raymond Terrace has also proved popular since Christmas.
The free day alternates between the sites on a week to week basis through the cooler months, and twice a month from October to March.
“We received 45 tonnes of green waste at Salamander Bay on Sunday,” Mr Malloy said.
The green waste is composted for agricultural use, Mr Malloy said, or the landscaping industry which further composts the material.
The council contractor, Suez, also composts some general waste, he said, that is used in mine site rehabilitation.