The union covering Brisbane’s waste collection workers have slammed Brisbane’s LNP Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner for not taking responsibility over increasing rates of missed bin collections.
In a media release sent out yesterday, the Transport Worker’s Union say increasing rates of missed bin collections are a “system failure” and not the fault of Brisbane’s garbos.
Josh Millroy, TWU Queensland Director of Organising says that, “TWU members work incredibly hard every day to keep this city clean and they deserve respect, not blame.”
“Missed bins point to management and resourcing failures. As the city grows, pressure on workers increases, but the system has not kept pace.”
Millroy also points to a limited time window that makes it difficult to deliver the service properly.
“Brisbane City Council must lift restrictions on early pick-ups that are affecting service delivery. These workers want to get out on the road earlier to complete their routes before peak morning traffic.
“The Lord Mayor and Veolia need to work together to deliver the basics Brisbane residents expect and back the workers who do the job.”
Brisbane City Council awarded a 16-year contract at the cost of $990 million to Suez in 2017. The company is now known as Veolia after a merger of local operations.
During Tuesday’s Council meeting, Schrinner said he was “not happy” with the performance of the contractor in recent times.
This was in response to a question from Labor Opposition leader, Jared Cassidy, who said that he and his Opposition colleagues had heard from residents across Brisbane that their bins have not been collected.
The numbers back this up. Data sourced by Brisbane Labor show that for February 2022-25 alone, reports of missed red bins have increased by 225%, yellow bins by 180% and green bins by 316%.
Cassidy called out the Lord Mayor’s attempts to blame the contractor and by extension, the garbos.
“The buck stops with Adrian Schrinner.”
“We are eight years into a 16-year contract. He was either totally ignorant about this trend, or he didn’t care until it came up in the press. Either way, he has totally dropped the ball on an essential council responsibility.”
“Brisbane’s population has boomed but his LNP Council hasn’t kept pace.”
