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More than 9000 Tuggeranong residents have joined the 8700 residents in Weston Creek and Kambah as green bin owners, as collections start this week in Tuggeranong. It brings the total to 9160 households registered for the green bin trial across Tuggeranong, out of 28,833 eligible households, with a further 8700-odd registered in the earlier trial areas in Kambah and Weston Creek. Police minister Mick Gentleman, standing in for city services minister Meegan Fitzharris, said collections of the new green waste bins started in Gowrie, Macarthur and Fadden on Monday, with take up in Tuggeranong exceeding the 6000 households initially expected to register. A 2016 election promise, the trial is expected to extend to Belconnen in September, before further expanding into other areas of the city mid-next year, despite calls for compensation from trash packers for business lost to the government-funded trial. But Ms Fitzharris has previously rejected compensating the sector for any potential lost business, instead saying the government was considering other options for those affected, including re-training staff. With Tuggeranong collections now begun, residents in Weston, Stirling, Waramanga, Fisher and Kambah East currently in "green week" on the collection calendar will change to "yellow week". Those residents had their green bins collected last week and they will be collected again this week and every fortnight onwards, while the government has forecast further future changes to the collection days as the program expands. The current scheme is contracted out to Corkhill Brothers, with the initial $2 million contract for areas across Kambah and Weston Creek extended to June 2019, with a total value of $4.48 million after a variation to the contract in December expanding it to Tuggeranong Valley. Other residents in Tuggeranong wanting to register for a green bin can do so online, but unless they hold an eligible concession card, they will need to pay an initial $50 registration fee to 'opt-in'.

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