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proudly serving Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay
8 DECEMBER, 2021
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Giving spirit The Hobsons Bay annual food and toy drive is returning this year, with council inviting residents to give what they can. There are drop off locations across the city, with the council asking for non-perishable food with expiry dates of 2022 or beyond and new unwrapped, toys, books and gift vouchers. Donated food and toys will be distributed to families by Welcome Wagon West, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to providing support to asylum seekers. Laverton Community Integrated Services (LCIS), Salvation Army Altona and St Vincent de Paul will also be helping distribute the goods. Mayor Peter Hemphill welcomed the festive drive. “The annual food and toy collection not only supports those in our community who truly need it leading into the festive season, but also provides us with an opportunity to reconnect with each other as a community,” said Cr Hemphill. “Throughout COVID, we’ve shown that the Hobsons Bay community has heart and there’s a sense of hope and community spirit attached to this program.” Donations will be accepted until Thursday, December 16. Mayor Peter Hemphill at one of the drop off areas, Altona North Community Library.
260240 (Damjan Janevski)
Green bins cause a stink By Molly Magennis A Williamstown resident is considering putting his food waste back into the garbage bin instead of the green waste bin in a bid to combat the stench of “decomposing rotten food” now collections are being made fortnightly. The man, who asked not to be named, said last Tuesday was the first time his green waste bin was emptied after the bin collection schedule was changed from weekly to fortnightly. The bin collection schedule has been a contentious issue over the past year.
In June, councillors Daria Kellander, Tony Briffa, Diana Grima and Matt Tyler voted to change the regular garbage collection back to weekly and the green bin collection to fortnightly instead. At the time, Cr Tyler said the change would address complaints about the smell of the garbage bins. “The major problem for residents is the smell created by garbage that’s sitting for two weeks – understandable given many households disposing of dirty nappies and also have pets,” he said. As reported by Star Weekly, the decision was met with protest by local residents, and
an emergency meeting was held in July where the four councillors doubled down on their original decision. The resident said he had no issues with smell when the green waste bins were collected weekly, saying the extra week between collections had made an unpleasant difference. The resident said he and other people in his area are even considering putting their food waste back in the garbage bin, just so that it would be collected every week. “What used to happen after one week is the food organics, the food scraps, they would start to rot and decompose, it would smell a little but
then the bin would get collected and emptied and everything would be OK,” he said. “But now what’s happened … it rots and it ferments and it decomposes and the smell from the one bin is enough to almost make you gag. As you’re out in the street, it was noticeable and people were talking about it on their way to school as they were dropping their kids off.” “I can honestly say that a pooey nappy…. it does not stink anywhere near as much as rotting decomposing fermenting food in the [green] bin.” Hobsons Bay council was contacted for comment.
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