Rural city of Wangaratta councillors endorsed the adoption of the Waste Management Policy 2025 at September’s council meeting.
At the July council meeting council endorsed the draft Waste Management Policy 2025 for community engagement.
Council invited community submissions on the draft Waste Management Policy 2025 for 28 days from 25 July 2025 to 22 August 2025 via the Connect Wangaratta webpage.
Of the 12 visitors to the project page, three surveys were completed with the following feedback: “Is the plan to continue with the use of 'yellow top' bins in public areas?”, “Great to have a more circular economy”, and “There should be an annual kerbside hard waste collection, which many other councils”.
Council currently maintains the use of yellow-top recycling bins in public areas, with no changes planned to this service.
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In response to community feedback requesting an annual kerbside hard waste collection, council acknowledges the interest but notes that such a service is currently beyond the financial scope of the existing waste program.
Director of community and infrastructure, Marcus Goonan, said based on the current Work Safe laws, kerbside hard waste collection is a very difficult thing to introduce.
"It's obviously, once the community is satisfied with that service, a very difficult thing to take out," he said.
"We do still have vouchers that can be redeemed at the tip, that does mean that you've got to bring your tip or transfer stations.
"We're certainly not looking in future to implement a kerbside hard rubbish collection."
Council provides an alternative through its voucher system, which allows residents to responsibly dispose of bulky waste at designated facilities.
An update of the Waste Management Policy 2025 has been undertaken to strengthen the existing policy with the implementation of the kerbside glass collection service ensuring that it remains accurate and applicable to service delivery.
Cr Allison Winters moved the motion, and it was seconded by Cr Dave Fuller.
Mayor Irene Grant said waste is always something that council has to be agile with.
"Things change all the time and um and as a council we must be agile to what is best practice and perhaps, more importantly, what we can afford," she said.
