Darebin provide hard waste collection services each year.
Hard waste collection service for 2024
Council will provide an area-wide hard waste service in winter 2024 as usual. Dates will be confirmed by mid May 2024. Please check back for confirmed dates. You will receive a brochure in the mail two weeks before your scheduled collection and we will share more information here in the coming months. There will be no booked hard waste collection service in spring 2024.
Hard waste collection trial after 2024
We’re trialing something new for hard waste in Darebin - a booked hard waste collection service with the following features:
- One free booked collection of two cubic metres of waste per calendar year.
- Bookings made online or by phone.
- Extra collections can be arranged for community members experiencing hardship.
- Option for residents to pay for extra, unlimited collections of up to two cubic metres of hard waste.
We’re excited to trial this new approach and look forward to seeing the tangible benefits it brings to our community.
Darebin’s hard waste collection service plan over the next three years will be:
- Continue with an area-wide hard rubbish service in winter 2024
- No booked service in spring 2024
- First year of trialling booked hard rubbish service in 2025
- Second year of trialling booked hard rubbish service in 2026
- Assessment and recommendation of Darebin’s ongoing hard waste service to commence 2027
So in winter 2024, we’ll do an area-wide pick-up as usual, but there will be no booked pick up in spring and then we’ll move to the booked pick-up trial in 2025 and 2026. Dates for the 2024 pick-up are not expected to change. You’ll receive a brochure in the mail two weeks before your scheduled pick up and we’ll share more information here in the coming months.
Frequently Asked Questions: General Hard Waste
To find out what items you can put out as hard waste visit the what we do and don’t collect page
Instead of putting items out as hard waste where they will most likely become landfill, you could consider:
- Fixing broken items
- Donating items to a community group or op shop, or selling items
- Dropping items of at the Darebin Resource Recover Centre
Yes, so we ask you to do everything you can to send it to a better place.
Please consider:
- Donating reusable items to an op shop or community group
- Buying less or buying from an op shop to give an item a second life
Frequently Asked Questions: Darebin's Hard Waste Trial
At the 26 February 2024 Council Meeting, Council decided to trial a booked hard waste collection service conducted by a contractor, with the following broad features:
- One booked collection of 2 cubic metres of rubbish per calendar year.
- Bookings made online or by phone.
- Extra collections can be arranged based on need (as defined in Darebin’s hardship policy).
- Option to pay (at resident’s expense) for extra, unlimited collections of up to 2m3 amount of hard rubbish.
The three-year hard rubbish service plan is as follows:
- Continue with area-wide hard rubbish service in 2024
- No booked spring pick up in 2024
- First year of trialing booked hard rubbish service in 2025
- Second year of trialing booked hard rubbish service in 2026
- Assessment and recommendation of continuing hard rubbish service to commence 2027.
Council’s current contract for hard rubbish collection will expire in March 2024. A tender to appoint a new contractor commenced in November 2023. A new service contract must be entered in to, and the minimum contract length is two years.
The procurement panel for the hard rubbish service is currently assessing tenders, and following Council adoption of the service recommendations, it is proposed to bring the procurement recommendations to Council for appointment. The tender process has not been a large factor in the development of this recommendation.
We think a booked collection service will benefit the community in a number of ways:
- In some streets during collection times, footpaths become inaccessible forcing people using wheelchairs, prams and other wheeled aids to walk on the road.
- Timing for the blanket collection is not flexible. Residents who cannot move their rubbish have to rely on assistance and this is not always available at the right time.
- The inability for residents to arrange a hard rubbish collection when they need it (for example, when renters vacate) may contribute to higher incidents of dumped rubbish.
- Responses to the consultation on waste services indicated that it encourages people to declutter/remove items from their house.
- Councils who have recently moved to a booked collection note that landfill diversion levels have increased.
There is not expected to be any change to your waste charge due to the booked trial.
There will not be any charges to your existing kerbside waste charge due to this change. However, there will be an option to book an additional hard waste collection at a cost.
To provide feedback, please call 8479 8888 or email mailbox@darebin.vic.gov.au