Green light for kerbside recycling in Tauranga

Kerbside recycling bins like this are on the cards for Tauranga. Photo/NZME

Kerbside recycling and rubbish collection in Tauranga has been given the green light.

Tauranga City Council voted to introduce two kerbside recycling and rubbish collection services during Long Term Plan deliberations last week. The Bay of Plenty Times reported on this at the time here.

This morning the council sent out a press release confirming details of the deal, which will start in October as an interim rates-funded glass collection service.

A full kerbside waste and recycling service, which the council said would take longer to implement, will be introduced to all residential properties in 2021.

Resource recovery and waste manager Rebecca Maiden said nearly 70 per cent of the kerbside waste Tauranga sends to landfill could be recycled or composted "so it's definitely time for us to do better".

"The council-led kerbside services will provide rubbish and recycling bins to every household in Tauranga making it easy for everyone to recycle.

"And with management of Tauranga's waste stream, council will have greater influence over the range of materials that can be recycled at the kerbside (such as food waste, glass, and plastics 3-7), which has not been possible with privately-led collection services."

A grant of $165,000 from the Glass Packaging Forum has been provided to contribute to the cost of providing a glass recycling container to each residential property, and a Council application to the Ministry of the Environment has been submitted for further contribution.

Maiden said the grant represented about a 25 per cent share of the glass recycling receptacle costs for the whole city.

"A Council-led kerbside collection service is one of the key actions in Tauranga's Waste Management and Minimisation Plan to reduce our city's waste to landfill.

"It's great to have the go-ahead now to make it happen for the benefit of both the environment and the Tauranga community as a whole."

Glass Packaging Forum scheme manager Dominic Salmon said the funding came from levies paid by members of the forum's voluntary product stewardship scheme.

"The main aim of the scheme is to improve the quality and quantity of container glass available for recycling.

"This funding is product stewardship in action as it is the companies that make and sell glass helping to keep it out of landfill.

"We commend Tauranga City Council for acting so swiftly to ensure glass can be recycled and not sent to landfill," Salmon said.