Perth Voice Interactive

BAYSWATER council will phase out its commercial waste collection over the next four years, despite a warning it will drive up costs for small businesses.

The move followed the first review into the City’s commercial waste services in 20 years, which found that some businesses had been rorting the system for years, and staff trying to pull them into line had been threatened.

Some of the tricks business tried to avoid paying for their bin collection were ripping off the council’s logo to design their own stickers or stealing their neighbours’.

Councillor Georgia Johnson tried to get the council to adopt a “moderate” withdrawal from commercial waste collection with a residential-style system for small businesses, but even she reckoned some of the shady dealings were unacceptable.

Scrap metal

“We heard stories about businesses requesting, for example, a FOGO bin, and then filling it with scrap metal parts; I mean that’s just not on,” Cr Johnson said.

The report found the council was losing more than $62,000 each year collecting bins that hadn’t been paid for, equating to $1.2m over the 20 years its commercial waste collection had been running.

Cr Johnson said the report showed the diversity of commercial businesses, particularly with industrial areas, made it difficult for the council to tailor its collection to their needs, but didn’t favour a complete phase-out.

“If you’re producing a small amount of waste that is similar to our residential collections, then that’s something that the City does really well,” she said.

Her motion got support from deputy mayor Elli Petersen-Pik, but when it failed and the council moved to consider a total phase-out by 2028, he warned there could be business .

“I definitely acknowledge that some businesses, definitely in the industrial areas, probably should be moving onto private waste services, but you need to understand that some businesses in our town centres, they are very small,” Cr Petersen-Pik said.

“That will require them to now pay much more to have basic services that I think every local government should provide, even if it’s limited to the amount of bins they can have.

“We will have businesses questioning what they actually get for their rates.”

But Cr Josh Eveson said the phase-in period would give businesses time to plan for the change, while a last amendment from Cr Steven Ostaszewskyj will see CEO Jeremy Edwards explore non-council alternatives to “support” businesses through the transition.

by STEVE GRANT