Your Rubbish Bin Could Be Collected Every Week Again — Here's What's Going On
Victorian Liberal leader Jess Wilson promised on 10 August 2026 to bring back weekly rubbish collections across the state if the Liberals win November's state election. She said a Liberal-National government would force councils to collect general waste every week and called the current fortnightly system in her own area "disgusting" (The Guardian).
Wilson's electorate of Kew is in the Boroondara council area, one of thirty-three Victorian councils that have already switched from weekly to fortnightly rubbish collection. Melbourne councils that have made the change include Banyule, Bayside, Boroondara, Glen Eira, Knox, Manningham, Monash, Nillumbik, and Yarra Ranges (The Guardian). Merri-bek council is expected to switch in mid-2027, saying it would save ratepayers $16 million over ten years (The Guardian).
The promise has two parts. First, a Liberal-National government would make councils collect the red-lidded general waste bin every week. Second, Wilson said the government would cap the waste charges households pay, so people would not face bigger bills because of the change (The Guardian). The Victorian Liberal Party's Facebook account reinforced the pledge on 10 August, saying "under a Jess Wilson Liberal Government" it would "guarantee weekly red bin collection" (Liberal Party Victoria, Facebook). Wilson had hinted at the announcement a day earlier in an Instagram video on 9 August 2026, saying: "We're going to guarantee your red waste bin gets collected every week" (Wilson, Instagram).
The Liberals' plan also targets the Allan Labor government's four-bin system. Victorian Liberal MP Bev McArthur said in July 2026 that a Wilson Liberal Government would remove the rule requiring every council to introduce a fourth bin (McArthur, Facebook). That promise ties into longer-running Liberal worries about waste policy in rural areas. The party's November 2022 plan noted that farmers and rural communities had raised concerns about biosecurity, rubbish management, and bushfire risks linked to changes in waste systems (Victorian Liberal Party, Real Solutions plan). Separately, the Victorian Liberals pointed out in February 2026 that Warrnambool City Council collects waste from 165 bins on State Government land at a cost of about $200,000 per year, calling it a burden on local ratepayers (Victorian Liberal Party).
So why did councils switch to fortnightly collection in the first place? The main reason is money. Fewer collection runs mean lower costs for councils. Many councils also pair the change with a separate bin for food scraps and garden waste, which keeps that material out of landfill and turns it into compost or mulch. Merri-bek's projected $16 million saving over ten years shows the financial logic councils have been following.
The rate-capping part of Wilson's promise is the trickier piece. Victoria already has a system that limits how much councils can raise their main property charges, but it has not applied to the separate waste charges councils add to household bills. Extending that limit to waste charges would need new laws or a regulatory change. And for councils that have already signed multi-year contracts for fortnightly collection, going back to weekly runs could mean extra costs they have to absorb or negotiate with their contractors.
The four-bin rule the Liberals want to scrap is part of a law passed in 2021 called the Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act. The idea behind a circular economy is to keep materials in use for as long as possible, recycling and reusing them rather than sending them to landfill. The current law set up a standardised four-bin system for households across Victoria.
The broader picture here is a clash between two different approaches to waste. The current system uses fortnightly collection and extra bins to push waste away from landfill. The Liberals' plan would shift away from that, making weekly pickup the priority instead. Whether voters see fortnightly collection as a problem or an acceptable trade-off for lower costs and more recycling will shape how much attention this issue gets in November. Wilson's choice of words like "disgusting" suggests she wants to make rubbish collection a relatable, everyday campaign issue. The councils already on fortnightly systems, including her own in Boroondara, will be where that message is put to the test.
