Recycling woes continue to vex council

Waste contractor United Resource Management continues to receive criticism from residents with recent eye-witness reports suggesting the City of Sydney contractor is not recycling the city’s rubbish.

Residents contacted City News alleging employees of waste contractor URM were seen throwing recycling bins in with regular rubbish collection and trucks were left running while their drivers abandoned the vehicles.

Jo Holder from the Darlinghurst resident’s action group (DRAG) said she and her partner witnessed URM employees on Orwell Street in Kings Cross putting all rubbish collection bins in the one truck.

“He stopped the truck, got out, loaded and emptied all URM bins into the back – including re-cycling (yellow and blue tops); got back in and repeated the same,” she said.

She also claimed the driver got out of the truck while it was running to assist the other two men with rubbish collection.

This is not the first time URM workers have been accused of this practice. Earlier this year a Transport Workers Union representative claimed it was “common knowledge” workers had been given an order by the company to “trash” recycling with general waste in order to save time.

A representative for Council said the City had received a complaint from a Kings Cross resident last week which included a number of photos believed to show URM workers putting recyclable materials into a garbage truck.

“After an investigation, it was found that the bins in the photos were recycling bins and were being emptied into a recycling truck which was then taken to the recycling facility for the materials to be processed,” he said.

He said recycling initiatives and practices by the City meant the amount of material recycled had actually increased.

“The City’s most recent figures show a seven per cent increase in material delivered to our recycling facilities for the first quarter of 2010 (compared to the same period in 2009).”

But Ms Holder slammed the report claiming the incident was incorrectly reported and complaints were not being recorded by council.

“I know of many people who have repeatedly reported incidents such as these to Council,” she said.

“Including the waste manager of my building. He was told today by an officer at Council’s Kings Cross shop on 11/11/2010 that ‘they have had no complaints about garbage’.”

Are the waste contractors in your area doing the right thing? Email us at question@alternativemediagroup.com or leave a comment below.

By Simon Black