Council's waste services have been temporarily affected following an incident at Blaxland Waste Management Facility.
- Red Bin collections and the Booked Waste Service are delayed.
- Those who normally get red bins collected on Thursdays, will get their bins collected on Friday (18 March) and those who get red bins collected on Fridays, will be collected on Saturday (19 March). Please leave your red bins out until they are collected.
- Booked Waste Services that are also due to be collected, will also be picked up as soon as possible.
Green and yellow bins are still being collected, as normal.
- Blaxland Waste Management Facility will reopen on Friday (18 March) Due to the conditions, the capacity of Blaxland facility has been impacted.
- Only 4 vehicles will be allowed to enter the small vehicle area at any one time. (Residents cannot enter the top platform currently).
- The top platform will only be available to four trucks at the one time.
- Katoomba Waste Management Facility remains temporarily closed. Given it is a transfer facility, we are unable to effectively transfer material from this site to Blaxland (which currently has reduced capacity). The Katoomba facility will reopen as soon as possible and the community will be informed.
A Waste Facility Officer was seriously injured at the Blaxland Waste Management Facility on 16 March while attempting to unload a hook lift truck. The Council employee, who is 61, has undergone surgery and is in an induced coma.
Mayor, Cr Mark Greenhill, said: "I'm asking for the community's patience. The incident we had at the Blaxland facility on Wednesday (16 March) is extremely serious.
"While flood damage has had a significant impact on our community in the past week or so, it has also impacted the facility and the Council staff are under pressure after this terrible incident. Given what's happened, we do not want to put more pressure on them and we need our community to be understanding. There will be delays in Waste Services, and for those who need to visit the Blaxland Waste Management Facility, in the coming days."
Police and SafeWork NSW have now cleared the Blaxland Facility to be reopened.
"Our Staff have obviously been affected by this terrible incident and our thoughts are with them. To the Staff who were the first to assist their injured colleague, we extend our thanks.
"The entire Waste team, the Council workforce, management and Councillors are all distressed. Our thoughts go out to the worker and his family."
