Nillumbik Shire Council will reopen its Recycling and Recovery Centre on Friday 1 May, acting on advice from peak council body Local Government Victoria.
The reopening follows its closure by Council on March 27 to ensure compliance with strict government COVID-19 social distancing and hygiene requirements.
Mayor Karen Egan said the next week’s reopening was good news for residents, many of whom have accumulated extra waste while staying home during the crisis.
“We appreciate that with everyone staying at home, particularly large families, more waste has been created, which has been difficult to dispose of.
“Residents are also making use of this time to clean up around their properties.”
Cr Egan said Council would implement strict operating practices at the centre in Plenty to ensure a safe environment for customers and staff.
“The health and safety of staff and the broader community remains our main priority. Access to the unloading area at the transfer station will be controlled to limit the number of people in the space at any one time,” Cr Egan said.
“This may cause delays and we would ask for patience amid these unprecedented circumstances.
“Payments will be by card only and we will be installing additional accommodation and barriers for staff to ensure social distancing requirements are met.”
In the meantime, Council’s essential kerbside waste collection service is operating as normal. Ratepayers can also book a free kerbside hard waste collection.
Council provides residents with three green waste vouchers each financial year that can be used at the Recycling and Recovery Centre. Renters should contact their landlord or real estate agent if they don’t have the vouchers that come with the annual rates notice.
While other municipalities have reportedly had an increase in dumped rubbish, Cr Egan said Nillumbik had, in fact, had a decrease in reports of dumped rubbish across the Shire since the coronavirus restrictions were introduced.
“We received 79 reports of litter and dumped rubbish between 19 March and 19 April 2020. For the same period last year we received 132 reports,” Cr Egan said.
“We are fortunate in Nillumbik that dumped rubbish and litter in parks and on roadsides is not as big a problem as in some other areas and we have staff employed to monitor public places and pick up anything that is reported.
“Council has a range of ways the community can report dumped rubbish including calling or emailing our customer service centre, through our website or by using apps such as SnapSendSolve.”
The Recycling and Recovery Centre at 290 Yan Yean Rd, Plenty, will open from 8am Friday 1 May. Its usual opening hours are Friday to Monday, 8am-4pm. It is closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, public holidays and during extreme weather events including high wind.
