A
new partnership between Armidale Regional Council and social housing provider Homes
North is set to increase education around waste disposal and provide more
opportunities for the region’s most vulnerable to properly discard bulk
waste.
The
two organisations will collaborate to implement a Regional Social Housing Waste
Strategy, which is a move that Mayor Ian Tiley says will maximise the amount of
waste diverted from landfill, while greatly assisting the region’s low income
earners.
“In
the areas that have a high volume of social housing, we often find bulky items
are illegally dumped or people hold onto rubbish due to not having the means to
go to the waste management facility,” said Mayor Tiley.
“Through
this pilot program, Council and Homes North will work together to rectify these
issues and increase education around waste disposal to better equip them for
the future.”
The
program will be trialled for twelve months, and will include regular bulk waste
and metal collection days for social housing tenants. Skip bins will be
provided in five separate locations, and will give tenants the opportunity to
dispose of items such as mattresses and white goods. These will then be
recycled and correctly disposed of by Council.
This will be complemented by education campaigns to teach people about the
correct ways to sort rubbish and how to minimise the amount of waste going into
landfill.
Homes
North is the region’s largest social housing provider and manages over 600
tenancies in Armidale and Guyra. The organisation’s CEO Maree McKenzie said
this pilot program will help address significant challenges faced by tenants
that can often be overlooked.
“Our tenants often don’t have suitable vehicles to
transport items to waste management facilities, or they don’t have the means to
pay the disposal fees,” said Ms McKenzie.
“Without any options for disposing of waste people
have no choice but to store the waste, which can result in vermin and health
related issues, or dump it illegally out of desperation - which is frustrating
for the rest of the community.”
“We hope this program will prevent these issues while
increasing awareness around correct waste disposal.”
The
twelve month program will get underway straight away, with the first collection
scheduled for October.
Published on 30 Aug 2021