The listening report details how the community values and uses Council's waste services.
24 July 2024
Bega Valley Shire Council has released a comprehensive listening report for its Waste Services Strategy Customer Satisfaction Survey.
"If you're interested in the shaping of waste management to suit community needs, we encourage you to read this report on our website," Waste Strategy Coordinator, Tim Cook said.
"It's a comprehensive summary of how the community uses and values Council-provided waste services, which will inform the development of our long-term strategy.
"The report reveals a range of key insights, starting with an overall positive satisfaction rating for all service areas, with an average score of 3.6 out of 5.
"Kerbside recycling collection received the highest satisfaction score of 4, followed closely by free waste disposal vouchers at 3.9 and the Waste App at 3.8."
Mr Cook said the listening report also revealed service areas where improvements can be made.
"It's imperative the drafting of this report and strategy is transparent, where the findings help us to form a holistic picture of what we can achieve with the available resources," he said.
"Service areas requiring the greatest improvement include public litter bins and kerbside landfill bin collection. However, comments reveal general satisfaction with our public bin service, suggesting that issues are localised to certain hotspot locations.
"The community's perception of waste service pricing was encouraging, with 62.5% of respondents believing services are fairly priced."
Mr Cook said pleasingly more than 87% of respondents find it easy to sort waste at home and 80% feel good about recycling.
"However, there is a desire for more education and awareness programs, as evidenced by 55.1% of respondents wanting Council to conduct more initiatives.
"There is more to take from this report, including differences in waste management satisfaction between town, village and rural residents.
"The report provides us with a solid picture of how the community rates and uses our services and it will assist in drafting a targeted strategy.
"While adequate funds and resources won't allow for delivery of all community requests, it will help us to target the funds we have to deliver the best possible service.
"I thank everyone who contributed to the survey. Insights from the 452 respondents are crucial in shaping the future of waste management in our shire.
"The next step is to workshop the results from the Listening Report with our Waste Strategy Community Working Group before we start drafting of the new waste strategy."
Councillors will review the draft strategy before placing it on public exhibition, where the community will have further opportunity to provide feedback.
The full report is available on Council's website.
