On the Awhitu Peninsula you buy official stickers for rubbish bags and, seeing as you're pretty rural, you'll have to drive your own recyclables to a transfer station. In Rodney, you're responsible for your own waste and can buy a bin or bag from one of several local companies.
The council is proposing a model from bits and pieces of all the methods and says it can see plenty of ways to make savings and reduce rubbish. Today it publishes its Waste Management and Minimisation Plan, which is open for public submissions until January 31.
The plan is legally required under the 2008 Waste Minimisation Act and must be in place by midway through next year, although it will be implemented over four years. As its name suggests, it's about managing rubbish and reducing what goes to a landfill.
This financial year the Auckland Council will spend about $85 million on waste management, but recover only about $20 million from charges. Taking into account population growth, GDP and existing waste trends, it estimates the region will produce 1.58 million tonnes of waste a year by 2022.
What's the plan?
About 45 per cent of Auckland households already pay for rubbish collections by buying bags, with the other 55 per cent getting them through their rates. People who pay through their rates pay the same amount no matter how little rubbish they put out. The new plan would introduce a "disposer pays" model and supply three sizes of bin - 80, 140 or 240 litres. The bins have barcode-like tags that record how often they are emptied. An 80-litre bin would cost $2.50 a collection and larger bins more.
The price would be deducted from a prepaid customer account. Fortnightly collections are planned.
As well as the regular bin there would be a recyclable bin (140 to 360 litres) for glass, paper, plastics and tins.
Everyone pays for this through rates or a surcharge on the bin.
A new idea is a third bin - and the council says it's the key to slashing what Aucklanders put out in their rubbish each week.
Things like spud peelings, flabby lettuce leaves and half-eaten sandwiches make up about 50 per cent of an average household's waste, or about eight per cent of waste going to Auckland's landfills.
The council would provide each household with a smaller bin, for those who aren't already recycling their own green waste, and would collect it once a week (to keep the smell down).
Green waste - grass clippings and weeds that don't suit composting - may also be allowed in the organic wheelie bins. Again, the cost would come through rates or a surcharge on the bin.
Waste audits from last year show an increased interest in recycling in the former council areas where the "disposer pays" models were brought in.
It's probable rubbish and recycling collections will be customised for those living on Gulf islands, in rural areas and apartment buildings. For example, apartment dwellers may be able to share bins.
The initial goal is a 30 per cent reduction in our waste - from 160kg to 110kg a year by 2018.
Resource, not waste
Councillor Wayne Walker supports ideas in the plan although he doesn't like to use the word "waste", suggesting "resource" is more appropriate.
"While there is stuff that's difficult to re-use and recycle, much of what we discard can be 're-purposed'.
"We've got the opportunity to put in a waste and recycling re-use plan for all of Auckland, and to pick and mix the best of what happened under previous councils as well as adding some new things," says the green-keen councillor from Whangaparaoa.
The new act means the council must do better and a user-pays model provides financial incentive for people to reduce waste.
"Waitakere and Rodney have had disposer-pays systems and that has reduced the amount of waste, but they haven't had the complete package."
Rob Fenwick, a director of Living Earth who chaired the Ministerial Waste Advisory Board, told the Herald that under a polluter-pays scheme residents pay directly for the waste they produce and are rewarded if they produce less. "It encourages the right behaviour and it's long overdue in Auckland," he said.
Mr Walker is excited by emphasis on collection. "It gives people an incentive to reduce their waste. In effect we're putting a value on things and out of that will come creativity. I'd like to think there will be a whole lot of people turned on to home composting."
More fine-tuning is needed, such as creating ways to dispose of hazards such as paint and batteries. The council says it's looking at the idea of "product stewardship". That's a fancy way of saying that if you make something toxic, like a battery, you need to have worked out a way the world can get rid of it safely.
Mr Walker says people need to think hard about their rubbish and respond to the council's ideas.
A summary document for the public is only six pages long, and the long version with more detail is clearly laid out on the council website. "As part of getting waste down we want to encourage people to compost at home and the council will continue to run free courses around that."
Recycling hubs will be set up so items with life left in them can find new homes. He cites Raglan's model, where waste is sorted and usable items sold at a shop on site. And he's confident the move to a user-pays model will result in lower rates.
Commercial waste
At present the council can reduce only the waste it collects. It is urging the Government to change the law so the waste industry has equal responsibility for reducing waste.
It wants businesses - especially building and demolition firms - to have minimisation plans.
Business and industry produce 85 per cent of material going to landfills.
John Dragicevich, the council's infrastructure and environmental manager, says it has already met 100 of the 500 private operators who collect Auckland's waste.
"There is a real collaborative approach to this," says Mr Dragicevich. "Private operators want to minimise waste, too, within their commercial frameworks. So there's a resolution within the whole industry to follow the same kind of ideas the council is looking at."
Mr Walker says those strong partnerships are crucial. "It will be tough but that's where the lion's share of the waste is. There is very valuable material out there; we've just got to put the incentives in place so we can capture as much of it as possible."
A shake-up of waste management will create new business opportunities, particularly for organic waste and recycling hubs
"Overseas," he says, "new industries have been created in obvious areas, like composting, and also making things from recycled glass, paper, metal and plastic". (Read about a man running one of those industries.)
Submissions on the draft waste plan open November 17. Click here to see the whole plan.
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