Leo McCullough: Not all black rubbish bags are born equal

The bag that no one wanted, because of its potential capacity.

During the week of May 14 to 21, our household ran out of the WDC approved grey refuse bags, and consequently used a black "garden" bag for the remaining household rubbish.

We applied an approved WDC sticker, and placed the black bag on the kerbside next to the approved grey WDC bags for collection.

To our surprise this black bag was left on the kerbside uncollected, with no explanation of why.

We consulted the WDC website, and found that the bag must have an approved WDC sticker, be less than 13kg in weight, and less than 65 litres in volume.

The black bag definitely satisfied the first two criteria, so we subsequently concluded that it was possibly too large in volume.

We removed some of the contents into an approved WDC grey bag until the volume was certainly less than 65 litres.

Ironically, we used the WDC recycling bin to size the volume, by placing the black bag within the bin and making sure the contents of the black bag sat level or below the rim. (The WDC recycling bin is 60 litres or less.)

On the evening of May 29 , we proudly placed the black bag on the kerbside next to its grey counterparts, confident it was now fully conforming.

Blinded by the excitement of possibly having our two-week-old garbage picked up, we didn't forsee any further issues.

So, it was unfortunate to see the black bag lonely on the kerbside well after the truck had gone.

This time the refuse collection people were kind enough to place a sticker on the bag stating that the bag was not picked up as it was greater than 65 litres in volume.

I contacted the WDC via the "problem" section on its website, leaving relevant contact details, and a message explaining that this garbage bag was well below the 65 litres criteria.

And maybe it would be prudent to educate collection staff on the actual size of 65 litres.

I also requested that the bag be picked up from the kerbside before it was ravaged by animals and two-week-old garbage strewn down the road.

Acting on the email, a WDC customer services lady rang me the next day, and explained that our bag was not picked up because, the WDC has a policy that it does not pick up black "garden" bags.

I further queried why WDC actually sells stickers for alternative bags, if it doesn't actually pick up the alternative bags and it was explained they were black "rubbish" bags, not black "garden" bags.

It seems WDC is not treating all black bags equally.

Furthermore, if I did not tell the black garden bag it was being used for rubbish, then I was hoping the bag would not actually notice, or be offended.

In the end, we hid the black bag in a grey WDC bag, and snuck it out on the street after dark. It was gone the next collection day.

I still feel rather annoyed with the WDC, as the exercise was an avoidable farce.

If the WDC does actually have a policy of not picking up black "garden" bags as stated by their spokeswoman, then it may be prudent for it to publish the policy, and avoid other ratepayers having to going through the same ordeal we just have.

Love it Here! (most of the time.)