Lismore City Council's problems with kerbside bin collection should be in the past once their fleet of nine (9) new garbage trucks arrive in 2025, thanks to a $5 million one-off grant from the NSW Government.

Council has experienced significant and ongoing impacts to its waste service following the devastating 2022 floods and its ageing fleet of trucks that spent more time in the repair shop than they did on the road. This led to complaints from residents saying their garbage had not been collected. 

The new trucks will help with council's ongoing reconstruction efforts and provide more efficient waste collection for the Lismore community thanks to each truck being fitted with the latest modern technology.

"A lot of the technology is around looking at what's coming into the truck, but also making sure that the routes that are selected for bin pick up are the most efficient that they can be," General Manager Jon Gibson explained, "The route will set within the truck, and tell you that if you need to collect a bin every 17 seconds or thereabouts, it will find the most advantageous route for the organisation to do that. And so that's all about trying to be very systematic about how we go about our business.

"It can weigh quantities of material coming in, but it really is about ensuring that we don't miss bins, that the route that we select is the best route to be as efficient and effective as we can be."

While this is good news for all the residents in the Lismore LGA, the question of asset management still hangs in the air because that is how Lismore City Council arrived at the decision it made in November 2023 to outsource kerbside collection. It simply could not afford the $5 million to update its fleet of garbage trucks.

The USU (United Services Union) initially felt council's decision was based on ideology. After a few strong discussions with council, they learnt the decision to outsource was a financial one, so they went to Minister Hoenig and the state government to ask for the grant to be given to council. Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin was also a strong advocate to get council the $5 million.

This was one of those rare occasions where state government, unions and local government all had a win for the betterment of their community. Council staff keep their jobs, Lismore City Council delivers a better service to its residents, and the state government help Lismore's recovery.

(Minister Hoenig, Mayor Krieg, Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin and the USU in discussion before yesterday's announcement)

As for this council's ability to manage this fleet of garbage trucks now and into the future, Mayor Krieg was confident they can get the job done.

"We haven't had an asset management plan at our council for over 15 years. So, through the work that that the General Manager and Brendan Logan (Chief Operating Officer) is doing, we're getting those policies and procedures up to date so that we can actually have a system where we're getting nine new trucks now, but how do we manage those into the future? So that we're evolving our fleet into the future. We're upgrading our fleet as we can into the future.

"That has not happened, and that's why you can go down to our workshop downtown, and see three of these trucks parked up there getting fixed at any one time. It's not good for the drivers. They jump in a vehicle at 3:30 every morning, not knowing whether the bloody thing is going to start.

"This gives us surety, and it gives us certainty that we can deliver the services that our residents and our ratepayers deserve to get.

Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin added, "The two things are operating; the assets management plan coming into being, plus this gives the circuit breaker to fix them all, and then the management goes forward with it."

As Minister Hoenig said, "Waste collection is a core function of local governments, and this funding will make sure the council can deliver this service to the residents of Lismore more cost-effectively."

The future looks a little brighter with our recovery once again.