By Charlene Gatt
A TRIP to the tip is hitting Maribyrnong residents hard in the hip pocket, with ratepayers paying among the highest tip fees across the West to get rid of their rubbish.
Maribyrnong City Council does not operate its own municipal tip and instead sends residents to the Moonee Valley Transfer Station, the closest tip to the municipality.
Here, residents are forking out $23 for a boot load of rubbish, $65 for a trailer load, $46 for a trailer load of green waste and $26 to give an old mattress the heave-ho.
The Brooklyn Transfer Station boasts similar fees, but charges slightly more for a boot load of rubbish ($25).
Over in Wyndham, that same boot load costs residents $19, while a trailer of rubbish costs $35.
The prices drop even further in the South-Eastern suburbs.
In Stonnington, which covers the suburbs of Windsor, Prahran, South Yarra and Armadale, it costs $15 to drop off a boot load of rubbish, $46 for a trailer load of rubbish, $24 for green waste and $17 to dump a mattress.
Alan Ross from the Maribyrnong Residents Association normally uses the Moonee Valley Transfer Station or the Brooklyn Transfer Station and said it was a matter of market forces at work.
“They will keep bumping the charges up and up and as long as they get sufficient patronage and a figure that’s going to return them a profit, that’s the way it will be,” he said.
Maribyrnong City Council wouldn’t comment on the tip fees because they do not run the tip or set any of the fees, but Mayor John Cumming recommended residents use their one free on-call hard waste collection to get rid of their waste.
Extra collections are available throughout the year at $50 a pop.
Meanwhile, Minister for Environment and Climate Change Ryan Smith has reminded Victorians to think carefully before they dispose of unwanted, unusable household goods at charities and to instead use designated waste collection points across the state.
“It is very disappointing to see people unfairly dumping their waste on charities who are providing various welfare services to communities,” Mr Smith said.
“Many Victorians simply aren’t aware that charities cannot sell various items. When they do find out that items such as old analogue TVs aren’t accepted, it leaves people wondering how they can dispose of their waste guilt-free.”
