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Last modified: 29 Jul 2020 10:24am

A line of green and yellow lidded rubbish bins sit in the sunshine on a berm on an urban street

Council will begin its roll out of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags for rubbish, recycling and organics bins in the coming weeks.

The stocktake and tagging of the district’s 51,000 bins will begin in September and is expected to take six to eight months to complete.

It will see addresses checked for all bins and an RFID tag about the size of a thumb tip fitted to each bin. The tag is automatically scanned each time the bin is collected.

“The project will allow the Council to easily maintain accurate records of the numbers and types of bins at each property instead of relying solely on labels and serial numbers. This means database accuracy is maintained remotely, allowing for a more efficient service and to ensure fair charging for all,” Council solid waste manager Andrew Boyd says.

People will be informed by letterbox flyer, and text message if mobile numbers are on file, when the stocktake team is in their area. You will be asked to make sure your address is visible on the label on the side of their bins or to write it on the lid.

While the tagging crew is in the area, bins will need to be left out until 6pm on your collection day. This is because the tagging crew are operating separately to the collection truck. A small round yellow sticker will be applied to the side of each bin once the tag has been fitted.

If the stocktake shows that someone has a bin that wasn’t originally allocated to their property they will be given the option to keep the bin and pay for it, or for the Council to remove it, Mr Boyd says. “It’s a clean slate so we won’t be charging people for bins that have not been in our system previously. But in the future once all the tags are on, only bins tagged to your property will be collected.”