A Sydney council has backed down from a plan to switch from weekly to fortnightly waste collection after complaints about smelly bins, maggots and flies.
Inner west residents will be able to choose to have their weekly waste bin collection reinstated months after council changed the collection to fortnightly with the rollout of food and organic waste (FOGO) bins.
The move to fortnightly collection of red bins by the Inner West Council coincided with the rollout of food and organic waste bins in October, which are now picked up weekly in green-lidded bins.
Lynn McIntosh from Marrickville said the green bins in her unit block regularly had maggots in them.
"You open up the bin, the food smells, it's unsightly, with maggots crawling out the top of the bin," she said.
Pauline Pau from St Peters said she had maggots in her green bin even though she sprayed the benchtop FOGO caddy regularly.
"We've been gagging each time we open the big bin," she said.
Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne said residents would now be able to opt to have their general waste bin collected weekly at no extra cost.
"We are also finding that it's not one size fits all," Mr Byrne told ABC Radio Sydney presenter Craig Reucassel.
"There are some households with small children and lots of nappies or larger households with lots of people in them and a greater amount of waste who are struggling with the fortnightly red bin collection."
Council estimated if 15 per cent of households took up the opt-in service the cost would be $1 million a year.
Environmental benefits
Mr Byrne said 5,900 tonnes of organic waste had been turned into compost rather than going to landfill since the FOGO rollout.
"Essentially the equivalent of having taken 7,000 cars off the road for one year," he said.
"The environmental benefit of this reform has been huge."
Catherine Bateson from Annandale said she barely used her red bin because most of her waste went into the FOGO bag or her compost at home.
"My experience has been fantastic," she said.
"It means that my landfill waste bin is always almost empty."
Loretta Coombs, an environmental educator from Annandale, said she had more flies but was happy to see some of her waste diverted from landfill.
"Meat and seafood and bones, which can't go into my compost bin … can go in the FOGO," she said.
"It's fantastic to see that go into a circular system."