Trial of high-tech garbage system in Mosman Park (A/Min)

The 7,500 residents of Mosman Park are to be the first in Australia to test a revolutionary high tech garbage system.

If successful, it could lead to new charging arrangements whereby ratepayers were offered a cash incentive for recycling and would only have to pay for the disposal of household waste they actually created.

"For most people that would mean a lower priced collection service while at the same time there would be a considerable boost to the recycling industries," Acting State Development Minister Gordon Hill said today.

"But Mosman Park Town Council has said it will not make a final decision on new charging arrangements until the technology has been tested for 12 months and the results thoroughly examined.

"If it is a success, I am certain many other local authorities will be eager to introduce similar schemes in their areas."

Mr Hill said the project was being jointly funded by Mosman Park Town Council and the Western Australian Government to test the equipment needed for such a user-pay system.

"The breakthrough is in applying computer technology to one of the biggest problems in the efficient management of household waste," Mr Hill said.

"Until now it has only been possible to charge residents a flat fee for waste collection - no matter how much or how little they put in their bins.

"It has not been possible to offer residents any real incentives to recycle or to pass on the cash benefits that recycling can bring."

Mr Hill said the real problem preventing such a scheme had been finding an economic method to measure accurately the waste from individual homes and keeping a record.

But now new waste collection technology had been developed which used computers and electronics to take such measurements automatically.

"Built into the lid of each waste disposal bin will be a tiny transponder which will enable electronic logging equipment onboard the garbage truck to identify which bin belongs to which household," Mosman Park Mayor Dr Bruce Moore said.

"Each time a bin is unloaded, the material inside will be weighed automatically by the truck and the results - together with the transponder's identification - recorded and fed into a computer when the truck returns to base."

With such information it would be possible to provide residents with an itemised account of their household waste.

"But the real bonus of this type is that it can offer residents a financial incentive to separate their recyclable material," Mr Hill said.

"We have never been able to build that into a garbage collection service before."

Mosman Town Council, which is establishing its own council-run collection service, will be investing $625,000 in new trucks and garbage bins.

The State Government, through the Department of State Development's Recycling Industries Unit, will be investing another $92,000 to cover the cost of the electronic equipment.

Each household will receive two bins fitted with wheels - one of 240 litre capacity to take a mixture of recyclable materials, such as newspapers, magazines, glass, aluminium, rags and plastics, plus another bin half that size for the disposal of other household waste such as food scraps.

"We are very aware that the project will attract a lot of attention - not only in Australia but around the world," Mr Hill said.

"Mosman Park will be the first local authority to attempt such a collection service, although there are many other governments and local authorities overseas which are considering similar schemes.

"I am quite sure what we are doing will go a long way to solve many of our waste problems by creating real incentives for recycling and consequently reducing the huge amount of material which now goes to landfills."