WASTE wagons are ready to roll through the streets of Tamworth with kerbside rubbish collection tipped to make a return.
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The new council service will require residents to book in and pay for bulky waste collections after the free service was binned in 2021.
Tamworth Regional Council manager waste and resource recovery Morne Hattingh said the decision to implement a user-based service was to provide access to more residents.
"At the moment there's no on-call service function, you have a bulky household waste voucher and residents are asked to bring that voucher to one of our council waste facilities," he said.
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"Some of the feedback we got from the community was specifically from people with disabilities and pensioners who don't have access to a vehicle or trailer.
"The on-call waste wagon service is basically for those entities so they can dispose of waste which ordinarily won't fit in their garbage bins."
The cost of the proposed service will differ depending on location.
Households in urban residential zones like Tamworth, Kootingal and Moonbi will pay $25, residents in Barraba, Manilla and Nundle will be $35 out of pocket and those living in regional remote locations will pay $45.
The return to kerbside collections was put back on the agenda by councillor Mark Rodda earlier this year.
Mr Hattingh said only about 25 per cent of households were utilising the free kerbside pick up collection when it was operating.
He said the new service would be budgeted for that meaning a more efficient use of resources.
Despite households now having to foot the bill for bulky waste collections, Mr Hattingh said he didn't think this would encourage illegal dumping.
"There's no data to substantiate that illegal dumping has increased. Council's regulatory services are quite familiar with all the hotspots and those hotspots are monitored," he said.
"Obviously there are concerns but at the end of the day we're lucky that the community in the Tamworth area have strong resource recovery ambitions."
Councillor Helen Tickle said the feedback from residents had been "more than positive" so far.
"Residents have embraced recycling over the years. They want to see the life of our landfill extended and they are environmentally responsible," she said.
"We feel this is certainly a positive step to encourage more recycling, but more importantly provide a service to those who don't have a trailer."
Details of the proposed Waste Wagon service are on public exhibition and open to community comment until September 14.
The service is expected to be on the streets by the end of the year.
At the moment, households are asked to use their quarterly waste vouchers to drop off their bulky rubbish to the community recycling facility.
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