Published on Friday, 24 March 2023 at 3:24:00 PM
Vincent residents will continue to have the convenience of bulk waste collections through the Verge Valet™ service for at least another 12 months.
In February 2022, Vincent started an 18-month trial of the Western Metropolitan Regional Council’s pre-booked service in place of the traditional scheduled bulk waste collection system.
As part of Verge Valet™, residents can choose their own pick-up times all year round and limit the timeframe for piling waste onto their verges.
Unusable items, including e-waste, that have no life left in them are accepted by the service.
Since starting early last year, feedback on the service has been positive, with more than 80 per cent of the 200 surveyed giving it a five-star rating.
The online booking system also includes waste education information about reuse options and alternative avenues for disposal such as charities or Buy Nothing Groups.
Council has approved a 12-month extension of the trial.
“We have seen an increase in the number of residents taking up their free annual verge collection via the easy and efficient Verge Valet™ service over the past year,” said Mayor Emma Cole.
“Our residents have told us that they like having the flexibility to choose their collection date, receiving text messages about the expected time of arrival and knowing when their waste will be collected.
“Verge Valet™ has also led to our neighbourhoods looking much cleaner without masses of big, non-reusable items piled on our verges.”
Ms Cole said the service aligned with the Waste Strategy 2018-2023 and our ambitious target of sending zero waste to landfill by 2028.
“The service addresses on-going illegal dumping, public amenity, safety concerns and complaints about the traditional bulk verge system,” she said.
“Most importantly, we are sending much less waste to landfill with Verge Valet™.
“Not all items collected in the Verge Valet™ go to landfill.
“Mattresses are sent for stripping and recycling of materials, any recoverable materials such as timber, metals, whitegoods, e-waste etc are sent for specialist recycling.”
In the 2021/22 financial year, 1325 Verge Valet™ collections were carried out and 202 tonnes were collected and processed, with an average of 152kg per household.
So far, in the current financial year, 1468 collections have been completed and 245 tonnes of bulk hard waste have been collected and processed, with an average 167kg per household.
The overall recovery rate for bulk hard waste material is currently approximately 67 per cent compared to 38 per cent through the bulk verge collection.
A report will be prepared for Council on the results of the trial extension.
Find out more about Verge Valet™ Vincent here.
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