... it will just mean more and more waste on the roadside.
- Cr Henry Meskauskas.
It will no longer be free for Maitland residents to drop-off green waste at the city’s dump when a regular green bin collection service begins in March.
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Maitland City Council will instead charge $50 per tonne for green waste that is dropped off at Mount Vincent Waste Management Centre on a weekend.
The green waste drop-offs have previously been free of charge on Saturdays and Sundays.
Cr Henry Meskauskas said he believed the new charge would lead to more illegal dumping across the city, even though people had access to green waste bins at their homes.
He said he opposed the introduction of the fee when it was touted last year.
Cr Meskauskas said offering a regular free drop-off period for green waste was incentive for people not to illegally dump.
“People will cut big bits off [trees and plants] that won’t fit into the green bins and it will just mean more and more waste on the roadside,” he said.
A new residential green bin collection service will begin across Maitland from March 6, after more than 55,000 bins were sent to homes across the Maitland, Cessnock and Singleton local government areas. The bins can be used for grass clippings, prunings, weeds, leaves, flowers, plants, palm fronds, bark, sticks and branches and untreated timber.
The aim is to keep 20,000 tonnes of green waste out of Hunter landfills.
Maitland City Council’s development and environment manager David Simm said the new charge was adopted last June after a period of public exhibition.
He said council agreed, at the time, to keep the free drop-off periods until the residential green waste bin collections began.
“The fee is being introduced to help offset the costs of holding, processing and transporting the domestic vegetation away from the Mount Vincent Waste Management Facility,” he said.
“The introduction of the kerbside service should see a reduction in domestic vegetation coming to the site. Residents will still be able to use their free tip voucher for this material if they choose.”