First bulky waste kerbside collections kick off

Maitland City Council’s new bulky waste service starts today, giving local residents more options to responsibly dispose of their waste.

The service’s first stops are Telarah, Gillieston Heights and Rutherford. Through this new service, eligible households can book up to two dates each year for their household’s bulky waste – such as furniture, electronic waste (old computers and hardware), mattresses and bundled green waste –
to be collected from the kerbside.

Alternatively, residents can order up to two 250kg waste vouchers each financial year, allowing them to drop off their bulky waste at the Maitland Resource Recovery Facility at 109 Mount Vincent Road using new digital waste vouchers redeemable from 1 July 2023.

There’s also the option to mix and match, with one booked kerbside collection and one 250kg waste voucher each year.

Maitland Mayor Philip Penfold says the new service is ‘convenient and flexible’, as well as ‘a win for residents who until now didn’t have access to a car or trailer to take things to the tip’.

‘We all lead busy lives and need things to be simpler and easier,’ Mayor Penfold said. ‘By opening up more options for our residents, we’re looking to make things uncomplicated for them to responsibly dispose of bulky household items and make it easier for Council to recover recyclable materials.’

‘We’ve looked at what other Councils are offering and feel our new service ranks among the best due to the advantages, accessibility, and recycling outcomes it offers.’

In 2022, Council led community engagement which garnered 3,700 responses, found Maitland residents were eager to see a reduction in illegal dumping and improved access to resource recovery facilities.

Nearly two thirds (64 per cent) of residents were supportive of a kerbside collection service for bulky household waste.

Maitland City Council Waste Operations Manager Michelle Lindsay said, ‘resource recovery is an important factor in the design of the new service’, with green waste, electronic waste, and mattresses collected separately on the kerb and recycled.

‘This coupled with the ongoing transformation of the Maitland Resource Recovery Centre, will extract additional recyclables from the residual bulky waste material, as well as the tip voucher hauled waste,’ Ms Lindsay added.

Find out more information or book a kerbside collection via our Bulky Waste Services page.