But the Dunedin City Council says the road is not safe for rubbish trucks and a collection point at the bottom of the hill has been successful for more than a decade.
The council’s new kerbside collection service came into effect on Monday.
Council rubbish bags are no longer available to buy and people are now required to use bins instead.
If they wish the council to collect their waste, residents of Wright Rd at Evansdale must leave their bins at a collection point at the bottom of nearby Jones Rd.
Wright Rd resident Josh Jenkins said it had been "manageable" to transport a couple of rubbish bags about 3.5km to the bottom of the hill to be collected.
But he now had to transport multiple bins down the hill by vehicle if he wanted to use the service.
The bins did not fit properly in his vehicle, were four to five times heavier than a bag and "muck" could come out, he said.
"We’ve got elderly residents on our road, retired couples, single mums — it is more inconvenient for sure."
He said he would probably leave his bins at the bottom of the hill and take the waste down to them, but it could become a health and safety hazard if more residents followed suit.
"Give us something — give us a shelter at the bottom where we can store our bins so we don’t have to truck them up and down."
Fellow Wright Rd resident Di Vickers said she and her husband lived about 1.2km up the hill and putting three "really big bins" in their vehicle was an issue.
They had chosen to take their rubbish to a transfer station instead of using the council service.
Mrs Vickers, who is in her 70s, said she could not lift the bins to put them in her vehicle.
A council spokesman said most residents in Jones Rd and all residents in Wright Rd were outside the kerbside collection zone and did not pay kerbside collection rates unless they opted to use the centralised collection point at the bottom of Jones Rd.
This collection point had been used successfully since 2011, he said.
"We use a centralised collection point at this location because Jones Rd is not safe for kerbside collection vehicles to use.
"It is a relatively steep and narrow gravel road, which is often corrugated due to its use by a large number of other heavy vehicles, which presents a variety of safety issues for our collection vehicles."
The council would provide an option for residents to swap bin sizes if required, between February and April next year, which would allow residents using the Jones Rd pick-up point to downsize their bins, if needed.
While the council did listen to public feedback, some rural roads were simply not suitable for collection vehicles, the spokesman said.
The council tried to cater for these areas by offering the collection points, and a bespoke service with different collections for different areas would significantly increase the cost borne by ratepayers, he said.
