In December, Goulburn Mulwaree Council indicated it would be implementing measures to compensate for the scrapping of the popular, annual kerbside spring clean up.

This service had been in operation for some years and many residents took advantage of the opportunity to use it to remove bulky items from around their house.

But the council scotched the idea, with a report to the December meeting citing that it was too expensive, costing about $80,000 annually to run.

They also claimed the rubbish made the streets look untidy and posed an OH&S risk to council staff. 

One of the ideas they suggested to compensate residents over the removal of the service was to call on local service clubs such as Rotary or Lions to assist.

But it seems local clubs may not be too keen to take up the offer to help remove rubbish.

Speaking personally, rather than is his capacity as secretary of Goulburn Mulwaree Rotary, Graeme Neil said he did not think it fitted in with what Rotary should be doing.

“I don’t think dealing with rubbish removal is something we would want to do,” Mr Neil said.

“I can't imagine we would be interested in doing that. We have specific deeds about what Rotary should be doing and I am not sure that this would fit into that.

“As secretary though, if I receive a formal notification from the council about this, I will bring it up with the board and if the board decides it is something we want to pursue then we would call a general meeting of members to decide upon it.”

Mr Neil said a problem with assisting with the removal of residents’ rubbish  was the average age of the members.

“I am 70 and I am considered ‘a younger member’ so I also think it would be quite physically challenging for many of our members to carry out this service,” he said.

President of Goulburn City Lions Lee Kol echoed this sentiment. 

“We have not been formally advised of anything by the council yet, but we are an ageing group, so whether we could take this on would have to be discussed by members.”

Goulburn Mulwaree utilities director Grant Moller told the December 12 council meeting service clubs could fill the void created by the service’s removal.

“Griffith Council has had this program going for a while where Rotary, the Lions’ Clubs and Men’s Shed get involved. It has been operating very successfully,” Mr Moller said.

But a call to Griffith City Council, who trialled using service clubs to assist, said the scheme failed within a year. 

Griffith City Council Waste operations manager John Roser said Griffith City Council now offered residents two 'Dump for Free' weekends annually across both landfills in place of the bulky kerbside collection. 

“These free weekends have been popular with an average of 1200 people using the service at the Tharbogang Waste Management Centre (the council's main waste disposal centre) and approximately 350 at the Yenda Waste Management Centre,” he said.

“As part of the 'Dump for Free' initiative, the council utilised service clubs for the collection of items from the elderly and infirm.

“While this worked for the first year, Griffith City Council had difficulty in getting any service clubs to register for following years. Council staff are now utilised where possible."

He said the council also discontinued the bulky kerbside collection due to inefficiency.

“There was a limit of 80kg per household, and not all households were serviced,” he said. 

“In addition, the service provider only collected certain items, which left waste on nature strips after the collection period had concluded.

“It was an expensive service to offer and did not provide residents with value for money."

Goulbrn Mulwaree councillors have also decided to adopt the idea of allowing two weekends a year for residents to drop off their waste for free at the Goulburn, Marulan and Tarago tips.

Under the scheme, residents could drop bulky waste (including fridges and mattresses) at the tips.