RELATED: Bendigo tip fees are set to double
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THE manager of a rubbish removal business fears an increase in tip fees will deter his customers.
Bendigo Property Maintenance manager Jaime Giri said the business would have to pass on the increase to its clients, the majority of whom were pensioners.
"A lot of pensioners can't afford it (the increase)," he said. "I'm sure we're going to lose customers from this."
He said the service was vital to older people, who didn't have the physical ability to remove their hard rubbish themselves.
"A lot of them don't have cars, let alone a trailer - they have no way of getting it to the tip," he said.
"They can't be living with rubbish in their houses and yards, it needs to be removed."
The City of Greater Bendigo draft Budget proposes charging people by the weight of the rubbish they are dumping at the Eaglehawk Landfill, rather than the volume.
People are currently charged $61 per tandem trailer load of rubbish, but the council has proposed charging $160 per tonne.
Waste Services manager Simon Clay said the average user's tandem trailer load of rubbish weighed 700 kilograms, which would cost $112 under the new fee system.
However, Mayor Peter Cox released a statement on Tuesday calling on residents to dispose of their recyclables for free at Eaglehawk Recycle Shop.
He said measuring waste by the tonne rather than by the trailer load would encourage people to separate their waste.
“The measure is designed to help recoup the real cost of dumping waste at the landfill and will also act as an incentive for people to drop off any reusable or recyclable items ... for free at the Eaglehawk Recycle Shop,” Cr Cox said.
“Again and again people are bypassing the recycle shop – located just 80 metres from the entrance to the landfill – and are instead choosing to dump perfectly good recyclables at the landfill.
"Doing so not only impacts on the environment but also increases the costs associated with running the landfill."
Cr Cox welcomed Environment Victoria spokesman Nick Roberts' earlier comments that there was no correlation between tip fees and illegal dumping in the bush.