Former deputy mayor Ben Shields, one of the people behind the petition, said they opposed a proposal to cut existing rubbish services back to every second week, a resulting $75 per year rate increase, and the fact that an administrator, not an elected council, would be making the decision.

“If you’re a family with a baby, or live next door to a family with a baby, imagine having nappies collected only every second week – it’s a health issue,” Mr Shields said.

“An elected council should be making this decision.”

Dubbo Regional Council (DRC) administrator Michael Kneipp said waiting for an elected council in September was not an option, because a $4.1 million Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) grant for the Dubbo Regional Organic Processing Plant will expire if the project is not completed by September 30 next year.

He said the organic waste bin would also save council money if the state government extended its waste levy.

“If the levy is introduced, and I anticipate that it will eventually come to Dubbo Regional Council … I think it would cost each ratepayer about $145 per annum,” Mr Kneipp said.

Mr Shields said if the weekly garbage service was maintained, that would reduce the opposition to the organic waste bin. But he said the rate rise was still an issue for many ratepayers.

“For the last 15 years, council’s answer to every problem we have is to put up rates and people have had a gutful of it really,” he said.

“We as a city are losing our competitive advantage … by continually putting up prices and making it more expensive to live here.”

But Mr Kneipp argued the organic waste bin and processing facility would have far-reaching benefits for Dubbo and the wider region.

He said the construction and operation of the plant would create jobs. But a failure to build the plant would disadvantage the Narromine Shire and Mid-Western Regional councils, which were joint recipients of the EPA grant, Mr Kneipp said.

“You’ve got this resource at the moment that’s simply being buried that could be used to nurture farms and gardens, to employ people, save methane gas going into the air and on top of all that we think it will be done at a reasonable cost to ratepayers, and certainly less than if the levy comes in.”