Brisbane City Council has foiled resident's sneaky plan to take an extra trip to the dump for free, but its efforts to prevent fraud has drawn criticism from some who accused it of largesse.
The council distributes about 500,000 sets of waste vouchers annually to ratepayers, but this year the vouchers had a photocopy-proof foil to stop residents illegally copying them.
Some residents have taken to social media to question the council on their new choice in design for the vouchers.
"Beautifully printed in embossed silver, I thought it may have been invitation, but no, just our waste vouchers," resident Garth Grams posted to the council's Facebook page.
"I'd like to know why is the council wasting our rate payers money on printing when many of us would prefer to see savings in rates or improved services."
"This means that instead of the free tipping being a way to help households, businesses were using the vouchers to dump costly materials – and in the end council has been footing the bill," he said.
"Each set of vouchers allows residents to save up to around $120, which is at a significant cost to council.
"When businesses start misusing these, the cost is much higher."
Cr Matic said foil's ability to prevent fraudulent use of the vouchers at the council's resource recovery centres far outweighed the cost.
Responding to complaints on Facebook, the council said it had implemented low-cost solutions aimed at identifying photocopied vouchers over the last two years, including customised perforations and adding a void pattern at the bottom of the voucher.
"Unfortunately these solutions have not proved reliable results," the council response said.
"Perforations have been difficult to detect when the vouchers are presented and the void pattern results have been inconsistent with some printers not revealing the void message."
It is understood if a resident tries to photocopy one of the new silver foiled vouchers it will reproduce as black.
Each rate-paying resident will receive 10 individual vouchers, with each voucher giving residents the chance to freely dispose of up to 100 kilograms of waste, with their next rates notice.
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