Garbage strike extends for a third week, more suburbs impacted

Garbage truck drivers must be hoping for third time lucky as their industrial action for better pay and condition spills into week three.

This time parts of Belconnen, Gungahlin and the Inner North will miss their regular collections while other suburbs will have their waste collected on a later date.

The protected industrial action by drivers employed by collection contractor Suez will impact customers as follows:

If you have a Tuesday waste and/or recycling collection

• Parts of Tuggeranong and Woden, which usually have a Tuesday collection, will have their bins collected two days later than usual on Thursday, 19 November. Residents are advised to leave their bin/s on the kerb for collection. Waste and/or recycling will be collected according to the current week’s collection calendar.

If you have a Wednesday or Thursday waste and/or recycling collection

• Parts of Belconnen and Gungahlin that have a Wednesday collection are advised that their bins will not be collected on Wednesday, 18 November and missed collections will not be caught up. You can take your waste to the temporary drop-off sites and your recycling to a Recycling Drop Off Centre.
• Parts of Belconnen and the Inner North that have a Thursday collection are advised that their bins will not be collected on Thursday, 19 November and missed collections will not be caught up. You can take your waste to the temporary drop-off sites and your recycling to a Recycling Drop Off Centre.

If you have a Friday waste and/or recycling collection

• Parts of the Inner North and Inner South which usually have a Friday collection may experience some missed collections on Friday, 20 November. Please put your bin/s on the kerb for collection. A temporary drop-off site will be available in the area for those that experience a missed collection.

Suburbs impacted by Wednesday’s missed collections are:

• Amaroo – waste
• Bonner – waste
• Casey – waste and recycling
• Charnwood – waste and recycling
• Crace – waste
• Dunlop (north of Ginninderra Drive) – waste and recycling
• Evatt (north of Clancy Street) – waste and recycling
• Flynn – waste and recycling
• Forde – waste
• Fraser – waste and recycling
• Hall – waste and recycling
• Jacka – waste
• Melba – waste and recycling
• Moncrieff – waste
• Ngunnawal – waste
• Nicholls – waste and recycling
• Palmerston – waste
• Spence – waste and recycling
• Taylor – waste.

Suburbs affected by Thursday’s missed collections are:

• Aranda – waste and recycling
• Belconnen – waste and recycling
• Bruce – waste and recycling
• Cook – waste
• Dunlop (south of Ginninderra Drive) – waste
• Evatt (south of Clancy Street) – waste and recycling
• Florey – waste and recycling
• Giralang – waste and recycling
• Hawker – waste
• Higgins – waste
• Holt – waste
• Kaleen – waste and recycling
• Latham – waste
• Lawson – waste and recycling
• Lyneham (north of Ginninderra Drive) – waste and recycling
• Macgregor – waste
• Macquarie – waste
• McKellar – waste and recycling
• Page – waste and recycling
• Scullin – waste
• Strathnairn – waste
• Weetangera – waste.

Green waste bin services, bulky waste collections and the wheeled-bin assistance service are not affected and will continue as normal. Residents are encouraged to visit City Services or call Access Canberra on 13 22 81 for more information.

The following temporary rubbish only drop-off sites will be available from Monday, 16 November until Sunday, 29 November for suburbs affected in Belconnen and Gungahlin that normally have their bins collected on Wednesdays or Thursdays.

Up to three large plastic bags of household waste (from the general rubbish bin) can be disposed of for free at:

• Flynn – George Simpson Park, off Sanderson Close (9:00 am to 6:00 pm)
• West Belconnen – West Belconnen Resource Management Centre, off Parkwood Road (9:00 am to 6:00 pm)
• Nicholls – next to Hu Guo Bao En Temple, near the intersection of Kelleway Avenue and Anne Clark Avenue (9:00 am to 6:00 pm)
• McKellar – McKellar Oval, off Bennetts Close (9:00 am to 6:00 pm)
• Giralang – Giralang AFL Oval, off Tucana Street (9:00 am to 6:00 pm)
• Mitchell – Mitchell Resource Management Centre, Flemington Road (7.30 am to 5:00 pm).

A temporary rubbish only drop-off site will be available on Saturday, 21 November and Sunday, 22 November for any missed collections in the Inner North and Inner South on Friday, 20 November. This site will be on Phillip Avenue in Ainslie at the start of the nature reserve, near the old Ainslie Transfer Station.

Temporary drop-off sites in the Tuggeranong area will also remain open until Sunday, 22 November.

Maps of the drop-off sites available at City Services. Proof of ACT residency such as a driver’s licence will need to be shown in order to access the free drop-off service.

Recyclable materials can always be dropped off for free at the ACT Government Recycling Drop Off Centres, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Eligible containers can be taken to ACT Container Deposit Scheme drop-off locations to receive a 10 cent refund per container. Find your closest drop-off and which containers are eligible at ACT Container Deposit Scheme.

An ACT Government spokesperson said it acknowledged the impact the ongoing industrial action had on the community and was trying to minimise disruption by ensuring the same group of suburbs does not miss a collection two weeks in a row, even when the industrial action occurs on the same day for two weeks running.

The ACT Government is urging both parties to reach agreement as quickly as possible.

Original Article published by Kim Treasure on The RiotACT.