FEBRUARY 12, 2020 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
Relax with reggae beats Thousands are expected to flock to this month’s Melbourne Splash Festival on the Williamstown waterfront for nine hours of reggae sounds. Chill out with an epic stage line-up that includes international acts Nyanda of Brick & Lace and Anthony B from Jamaica.Other festival favourites are Alariiya, Marvin Priest, SK Simeon, Yaw Faso, Lamine Sonko and the African Intelligence. Festival organiser Edmond Kolle said the multicultural event was family-friendly with free kids’ activities and children aged 10 and under admitted free. “We have a different range of music,” he said. “This is not just an African festival … we are trying to bring our cultures together.” Food trucks Tasty Suya and Angies Kitchen will be offering African street food, while Dum and Dumpling’s big yellow bus and The Taco Station will offer other international flavours. Gold coin donations and a portion of each of up to 5000 tickets sold will go towards bushfire relief. The festival is on Saturday, February 22, from 1-10pm, at Seaworks, 82 Nelson Place, Williamstown. Tickets from Eventbrite. Goya Dmytryshchak
Melbourne Splash Festival organisers Njume Edmond Kolle; Dizzy Dee and Leo Chofor. (Damjan Janevski) 204151_01
‘Sin bins’ left on footpath Hobsons Bay council officers are conducting audits of bins put out for kerbside collection, slapping stickers on those containing unaccepted items and refusing to collect them. It follows this month’s roll-out of the council’s four-bin recycling service, comprising new food and garden waste and glass bins in addition to existing garbage and recycling bins. Non-compliant light green-lidded bins were last week slapped with a sticker stating: “Your food and garden waste bin wasn’t collected because it contains …” This was followed by one or more ticks next to a list of unacceptable items including compostable and biodegradable bags, pet droppings, food containers and packaging,
nappies and wipes, logs larger than 30 centimetres, metal, glass, plastic, cardboard, coffee pods, teabags, ash and soil. Yellow-lidded recycling bins are also being checked. Some items that previously went in the yellow bin will no longer be accepted. The council’s website states: “Hobsons Bay is partnering with a local processor that has strict, high standards for what it can and can’t recycle locally.” Unaccepted items include milk cartons, coated or waxed coffee cups and plastic codes 3 to 7. Mayor Colleen Gates said the audits of bins would be carried out for the next six weeks. “For those households who received a sticker and didn’t get their bin emptied, council will send a truck within two business days to empty
the bin and the resident can work on getting it right for the next time,” she said. “Council will not be able to continue sending a spare truck to collect non-compliant bins and households may be asked in future to take contaminants out of their bin in order to have them collected. “Often, the wrong items in bins can contaminate the whole truck.” Star Weekly last week reported residents were concerned about health issues because bin liners were banned in the food bins. In response, the council on Sunday said “after double checking with our food and garden waste contractors that they can manage the volume they have advised us they will accept one or two layers of newspaper or paper towel” used to wrap food waste.
Williamstown resident Jenny Toon said other councils successfully allowed compostable bin liners. “I have come from the City of Greater Bendigo where we have very successfully operated a green bin system, collected fortnightly, using bright green compostable bin liners,” she said. “This system has won wide acclaim and reduced rubbish landfill.” Altona North resident Maria Boni said she was concerned less items could be recycled under the new system. “Only symbols 1 and 2 can be recycled and all the others go into the rubbish,” she said. “I work for a food-packaging company and our trays and tubs are symbol 5, which are recyclable – but we cannot do that. This does not make sense.” 12431907-FA46-19
By Goya Dmytryshchak
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