Some Wollongong residents have gotten a shock when they've seen their council rates notice - and it's all down to the size of their red bin.
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On top of an across-the-board rate rise of 1.8 per cent, some residents have seen a spike of more than $100 this year.
That's because they have the big 240-litre red-topped bin.
As of July 1, the cost to residents of all the red-topped bins has gone up.
But while the 80-litre bin has increased $3 to $316 and the 120-litre version up $10 to $421, those with the biggest bin of them all are getting slugged.
As of July 1, the cost to residents of all the red-topped bins has gone up.
The cost of a 240-litre red bin has jumped from $677 to $800 - an increase of $123.
A Wollongong City Council spokeswoman said the fee hike was an attempt to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill and move people away from the largest bin.
"Wollongong City Council is committed to protecting the valuable remaining space within our landfill and will continue to work with the community on waste avoidance and landfill diversion programs," the spokeswoman said.
"We've updated our fee structure as an incentive to further encourage households to downsize should their existing red bin (landfill) service be a large 240-litre bin."
She said one in four households had the 240-litre bin - the same size as the yellow-topped recycling bin.
The spokeswoman said people could reduce the size of their bin free of charge.
When it came to calculating the rest of the rates, council uses the 2019 land values set by the NSW Valuer General and not by Wollongong City Council.
"All residents pay a base charge on their residential property, with the value of the property contributing to the remaining land value charge," the spokeswoman said.
"For our residents, this means low-valued properties will have increases below 1.6 per cent while higher valued properties will increase above that percentage."
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