Victorian Liberals promise weekly red bin garbage collections for all, calling fortnightly system ‘disgusting’

If opposition wins November’s state election, leader Jess Wilson vows households will not pay more under the change

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The Victorian Liberals have vowed to restore weekly rubbish collections if they win November’s state election, with leader Jess Wilson describing the current fortnightly system in her local area as “disgusting”.

Thirty-three Victorian councils have switched general rubbish collections from weekly to fortnightly, with a similar shift occurring in other states.

In metropolitan Melbourne they include Banyule, Bayside, Boroondara, Glen Eira, Knox, Manningham, Monash, Nillumbik and Yarra Ranges.

Merri-bek is also expected to follow from mid-2027 , in a move it has said would save ratepayers $16m over 10 years, help keep food waste out of landfill and reduce pollution.

Under Merri-bek’s proposal, the standard red-lid rubbish bin would increase from 80 litres to 120 litres, while certain households, such as those with multiple children in nappies, could get bigger bins for free.

But Wilson said if elected in November, a Liberal-National government would require councils to collect general rubbish every week.

She said her government would also apply the council rate cap – which now limits annual rate increases to inflation – to waste charges, so households would not pay more as a result of the change.

The opposition leader, whose electorate of Kew falls within the Boroondara local government area, said reverting to weekly general rubbish collections was “common sense”.

“To be perfectly honest – it’s disgusting. The bins are overflowing. I have a toddler, we have nappies and we have many little kids on our street with large families,” Wilson told 3AW radio on Monday.

“You know what it’s like on bin night, when you have two or three extra bags and you’re trying to find somewhere to put them. They end up in council parks in the bins there overflowing.”

In a statement, she added that weekly rubbish collection was an “essential service that shouldn’t depend on your postcode”.

Wes Gault, the mayor of Boroondara, said he agreed that residents were “paying too much for waste disposal”, but it was due to the state government’s landfill levy, which has increased significantly in recent years.

“[This change] will cost our residents at least $3m more a year in trucks, fuel, servicing and staffing alone – not including the extra landfill levies,” Gault said in a statement.

He also said that 70% of material collected across all Boroondara’s kerbside bins was diverted from landfill.

“Bringing back a weekly landfill collection risks undermining that progress, [via] increasing emissions through more truck collections and potent landfill methane.”

The council said residents can also upsize to 120 or 240-litre bins at an additional cost if they had increased volumes of nappies.

Most councils that have switched to fortnightly collection have cited the introduction of weekly food organics and garden organics (Fogo) collection as the main reason for the change.

They have said the shift encourages residents to place food scraps in a green bin, which can then be turned into compost rather than sent to landfill, where they break down and produce methane.

Whitehorse council has considered making the change but decided to keep weekly collection. In material sent to residents as part of its consultation , the council said food waste was accounting for 40% of the weight of rubbish bins.

It said Boroondara, Knox, Manningham and Monash had “reduced the amount of waste sent to landfill by an average of 19%” in the first year after switching to weekly Fogo collections and fortnightly general rubbish collections.

It is not the first time rubbish has made headlines this year, with several Victorian councils in April pushing back against a mandated deadline to introduce a fourth, purple-lidded bin for glass by 1 July 2027 as part of a shift to a statewide four-bin system.

The government first announced the overhaul of the state’s rubbish collection in 2020, following the collapse of the state’s largest recycling company SKM a year earlier, which resulted in thousands of tonnes of recycling being sent to landfill.

The Liberals have committed to reviewing the landfill levy, if elected, as well as make the purple bin option.

In Western Australia, the One Nation candidate Luke Herdegen is using a state byelection to campaign for Rockingham council to restore weekly rubbish collection.