A proposal to introduce an organic waste bin to households and reduce the frequency of mixed waste collection has sparked concern among Dubbo councillors about the resulting smell and increased costs.
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Under the proposal, the organic waste bin would be collected weekly, while the mixed waste and recycling bins would be collected on a fortnightly basis.
Cr Allan Smith said he was troubled about the smell that would arise from leaving items such as nappies in the mixed waste bin for the extended time.
"Our community is still made up of families and there are young children in those families. These days not many people have washable nappies, they're disposables and the disposables go in that mixed waste bin," he said.
"I'm not so sure it's an appropriate process to leave that in the bin for one fortnight, especially in the hot weather."
He said he did believe the community wanted to have an organic waste collection to help reduce the amount of green waste that was "just thrown around".
However, Cr Shields said he did not believe the service was wanted.
Based on project estimate costs, the introduction of a new bin would cost an additional $63 per service per annum if mixed waste was collected fortnightly, or an extra $83 per service if mix waste collection remained weekly.
Councillors Smith, Ben Shields and John Walkom all said community consultation was needed before a decision was made about introducing the bins.
"I'm not necessarily convinced that the community will accept paying the extra rate money for this service, especially considering we are a largely rural and regional council where we do have the large blocks where we do have a large number of people doing their own composting," Cr Shields said.
"To this day, 16 years on council, I've not had one person, not one, come and say to me that they want a green waste collection service.
"If my instincts are right people don't want this. I've spoken to a few people about it so far and they're not too keen on it."
Cr Shields said at the very least, council should test the idea with the public.
"I want a flood of submissions, which ever groups out there, which ever individuals, I want the community to talk about this, annoying the councillors, get letters to us and what not.
He said he also agreed with Cr Smith that the reduction of services was a concern. If introduced the organics collection service would start in January 2017.