Karl slams Sydney council's plan to push fortnightly rubbish collection

A Sydney council has come under fire for planned changes to when red rubbish bins will be emptied.

From October 8, Inner West City Council will start emptying bins every fortnight, rather than weekly - with locals concerned it will cause a serious hygiene problem coming into the warmer weather.

For families with babies and young children, this will mean a spring and summer with dirty nappies, food waste and foul smells stinking up the streets for an extra week.

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Former Randwick City Councillor Harry Stavrinos saw a similar change implemented in his own council a few years back and he told Today it caused more problems for everyone.

"I can tell you now there will be a huge level of cross-contamination with which bin is the red bin, the green bin, the yellow bin," Harry told Today.

"I've got a 14-month-old son, he goes through nappies like water and last summer, we had a very big problem with maggots."

Harry said council believe it will mean 1200 tonnes less landfill each month, but for buildings with large tenancy numbers and high rental turnover, it will mean rate rises to deal with people throwing their rubbish in whichever bin they can find the room.

"It is not going to work the way they think it will," he said.

"You will also have rats and other vermin and the smell, I can tell you - it will stink."

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Today host Karl Stefanovic agreed it is councils responsibility to look after the grassroots local government issues and slammed the idea of leaving bins full for longer than a week.

"Having had a couple of kids in my life, there would be 20 or 40 dirty nappies in a bin in one day," he said.

"Council's job is to pick up the rubbish and fix the potholes - it is really very simple, not hard."

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