Tauranga food scraps bins will not be collected until further notice. Photo / NZME
Tauranga food scraps bins will not be collected until further notice. Photo / NZME
Some Tauranga residents are freezing food scraps to avoid maggots and flies infesting their rubbish bins as Covid-19 forces a reduced rubbish collection service.
Others say while reduced services are frustrating, that's just the way it is at the moment.
The city council has acknowledged the inconvenience but says it doesn't know when a full service will resume.
Earlier this month a shortage of kerbside collection drivers in Tauranga and the wider Western Bay of Plenty due to Covid-19 forced councils to alter their collection services. Food scraps and glass are not being collected in Tauranga and the Western Bay.
Hayden Goldsack, a Golden Sands resident, thought the service reduction meant people were paying for a service through their rates which they were not getting.
He said he had been taking his own glass to the recycling centre and most of their green waste went straight into the compost, but they did have a big pile of meat scraps sitting in their freezer at the moment.
Goldsack said they could only put it out in the bin just before collection otherwise it became infested with maggots and flies.
Matua Residents Association president Richard Kluit said while the reduced service was a frustration, it was put down to Covid and that is the way it is at the moment.
Kluit said it would obviously affect some families more than others.
Commenters on the Bay of Plenty Times Facebook page said they appreciated the difficulty council was having staffing the trucks.
One mentioned they had set up a worm farm for their organic waste and was happy to take glass to recycling centres for now.
Others said it was time the council reduced rates or gave a rates refund for a service they couldn't use.
Tauranga City Council sustainability and waste manager Sam Fellows said its level of service had been impacted by Covid staff shortages, like many organisations around New Zealand.
He said the council was focusing on collecting yellow-lid recycling bins, green-lid garden waste bins and red-lid general rubbish bins - which were mainly collected by a side-arm collection vehicle with one driver.
"[This is] the quickest and simplest way of ensuring we can service as many waste streams as possible.
"We apologise for the inconvenience of the reduced service, but prioritising collections will ensure the health and safety of our community, drivers and staff in these trying times."
Fellows said it was hard to predict exactly when full service would resume, as the impacts of Omicron in the community continued to be felt.
"Many of the region's kerbside collection drivers have either contracted the virus or are household contacts, and the number of available drivers fluctuates daily.
"We are still well below the number of available drivers needed to reintroduce full services."
Fellows said the council had received some negative comments on social media regarding the reduced level of service, but others in the community had voiced their support for the wellbeing of their contractors.
"We would love to continue to provide the service as the community has been doing an awesome job of diverting waste from the landfill bin, however many of our drivers are sick or isolating and we continue to pay them until they are better."
He said kerbside collections were a targeted rate that encompassed the full service provided, including the rubbish and recycling bins. There is no set rate for only glass and food scraps.
"Food scraps are still being collected in the red bin, and glass can be stored until the service resumes or put in your red bin as a last resort.
"We know this is a challenging time for our community, and our drivers, and we thank people for their patience.
"During this time, people can freeze food scraps or place them in their green-lid garden waste bin, or your red-lid rubbish bin.
"Glass can be stored and then drip feed it into the glass collections once full service resumes, taken to the transfer station, or as a last resort put in the red-lid rubbish bin."
A variety of Tauranga City Council rubbish bins and recycling bins. Photo / File
Gary Allis, Western Bay of Plenty District Council deputy chief executive and group manager Infrastructure Services, said community, staff and contractor health and safety were its top priority.
"Our kerbside team are thin on the ground because they are either sick with Covid-19 or have sick whānau, and we wish them a safe and speedy recovery."
Allis said they were working to resume the full suite of kerbside services as soon as it was safe.
"We aren't alone in struggling with staff shortages from Covid-19, this is happening all over the world. But we know our Western Bay community are caring and resilient, and that we can work together to get through this.
"We're thrilled to see more people using our community recycling centres, and encourage others to do the same while our kerbside team recovers – please check our website for updated opening hours.
"Thanks to our community for their patience, we know you're eager to continue diverting as much waste from landfill as possible."
