Whittlesea residents are being forced to store rubbish in their backyards and garages amid ongoing delays with the municipality’s waste collection service.
Angry residents have taken to social media to complain about their rubbish and recycling bins not being collected on time.
Residents from across the municipality claim their bins are being emptied up to four days late.
In some streets, the delays have been happening for the past two months.
The council has apologisd to residents on Facebook, saying it knows the service has been “unacceptable”.
It says the delays have been caused by its contractor, Visy, having a shortage of trucks.
Wollert resident Pip Beckett said delays in emptying her bins began late last year, with the situation becoming progressively worse.
Her bins are meant to be emptied on Thursdays, but often are not collected until Mondays.
Sometimes, half her street has its bins emptied, while the other half are not.
“We tend to store our rubbish in the garage until the bins gets collected,” she said. “We have a young baby and the nappies tend to pile up. It’s not pleasant, especially in this heat.”
South Morang resident Krystle Gear said her bins, usually collected on Friday mornings, were not being collected until Mondays. She said the delays started about two months ago.
“It’s frustrating,” she said. “We are storing rubbish in our backyard, which we don’t like doing, but where else can we put it?
“It’s unhygienic for me to leave it outside when I have two kids running around.”
Ms Gear has contacted the council about the problem and believes it is not doing enough to resolve the issue.
Council city transport and presentation director Nick Mann said Visy has been plagued by broken trucks in recent weeks, requiring the ageing vehicles to be returned to the manufacturer for servicing. He said the broken trucks did not excuse the delays.
“We know the situation is causing significant inconvenience to our residents and we apologise for this very poor service,” he said.
“After repairs, most trucks are now back in service and are running double shifts in an effort to clear the backlog.”
Mr Mann said Visy’s contract with the council expired at the end of the financial year. A new contractor will take over in July with a new fleet of trucks.
“These new trucks will have state-of-the-art technology which can track the performance of council’s collection vehicles in real time, as well as alert us of any missed collections,” he said.
Anyone experiencing waste collection issues, is asked to contact the council on 9217 2170.
