Tauranga City Council general manager of infrastructure Nic Johansson. Photo / George Novak
Complaints are rolling in about Tauranga City Council's new kerbside rubbish and recycling service, but the council is confident they are a vocal minority and most people will be happy.
Two weeks ago, the council announced it would be rolling out a rates-funded four-bin system to the whole city from July 1, at a first-year cost of $230 per household, plus $60 for an optional garden waste bin.
The major change, after decades of private industry dominating kerbside services, was part of a bid to improve some of the worst rates of household waste to landfill in New Zealand.
Most of the messages - hundreds in total - the council has received since then have been negative feedback or people wanting changes to the service.
That included three-quarters of the 47 people who have called, emailed or sent a message through the council's website between September 22 and 30.
Most of the 300-plus comments on the council's post on Facebook announcing the service were also negative. Some people commented more than once.
Of the reaction options, however, twice as many people 'liked' or 'loved' the post as those who chose the 'angry' or 'sad' reaction.
We will be introducing kerbside waste collections for all households from 1 July 2021. That means you will be provided...
Posted by Tauranga City Council on Wednesday, September 23, 2020
The council said the post had reached more than 14,000 people.
The city has about 55,000 households.
Among those not happy was Shelley Smith of The Lakes, who would pay more under the new system than she did using council rubbish bags, composting, and taking recycling to the transfer station for free.
When her full blended family of five people was home, they usually produced two bags of rubbish a week, more than she believed the council's service - a 140L wheelie bin collected fortnightly - could handle.
Many neighbours were in the same boat, she said.
"We are going to have overflows, and who can afford the tip fees? ... It's a minimum $17."
The rates increase felt like a "forced cost" and she wanted an opt-out option - a common request. Failing that, weekly collections or a larger bin.
The council has said more capacity will be available for those who need it, but it's not yet known how that will work or what it will cost.
It said some negative feedback about the new service was expected.
"Although our new service will halve the amount of waste going to landfill by 2028 and save the majority of households money, unfortunately, there are still some households in the community who will end up paying more than they currently do for their household waste."
When the council consulted the community in 2018 about bringing in a council-run service of some sort, two-thirds of people were for it and one-third against.
Council infrastructure general manager Nic Johansson told the Bay of Plenty Times people not happy about a change were naturally more likely to express their view than those who were happy.
"If we've had 70 people tell us that they don't like it, we've had 10 people telling us that they do. I've been personally approached by people who say that's just a fantastic result."
Other cities have rolled out similar services in recent years but those were changes to existing council-run services rather than all-new. Tauranga will move from a system with a lot of options to one-size-fits-all.
Johannsson said the council considered the size of the shift and debated it "vigorously".
He said other councils found rolling out new services with more options tricky.
"I think there was a lot of confusion around the selection of bin sizes without people necessarily knowing or understanding what they need."
That was why the council was only offering different bin sizes from year two, so people would have time to figure out their needs - though he acknowledged most would not need a full year to do that.
Asked what he would say to people who felt they were being forced into this service, he said he could understand how some would feel it was unfair.
The council, however, needed to look at it from the perspective of "value to the community, not just the cost to each individual".
He likened it to paying for other 'public good' services and not using them: swimming pools, libraries, roads.
"Kerbside ... is a public good. It's a really strong value proposition for the majority of people. We're pretty much halving the cost for the general public, and then there are the environmental benefits."
A market research survey of 1502 people put the average annual cost to dispose of regular household waste at $497.
People using council bags paid $202 on average, while those on a private kerbside service paid $551. Other popular arrangements ranged from $311 to $800.
Johansson said the private industry-led system had not done anything for the city, environmentally.
"We're hovering around the worst performers in the country."
People in Tauranga send twice as much waste to landfill as those in Christchurch, and more than those in every other main centre.
Johansson said it was tricky to design a service to suit everyone.
"We have struck a really good balance here in terms of value for money and the service that we provide. And the environmental benefits from the service as well."
Allowing people to opt-out would have increased the price, he said.
He appreciated the council, which has had high-profile failures in the past, had "the crosshairs on us".
"We're working really hard to make this successful so that people will actually ultimately think that this is a really good service."
The cost of Tauranga's new kerbside rubbish and recycling service will go up about $10 a year until 2025.
The council said this was due to "planned increases to the government's waste levy, the emissions trading scheme and inflation".
Smaller increases, in line with inflation, were expected in the rest of the eight-year contract.
The waste disposal levy - a fee the Government charges for landfill - is currently $10 per tonne but the Ministry for the Environment plans to lift it by $10 a year to $60 per tonne by July 2024.
The council has set the year one cost of its service at $230 per household, plus $60 for an optional garden waste bin.
From year two, the council will offer bigger bins for an extra cost or smaller bins for less. The costs have yet to be decided.
Johansson said the council needed to do modelling to determine how many households would want a different bin before it could set the costs.
"This will be based on what other councils have found, and discussions with our community on how the default sizes are working for them."
He said the Government levy increase would hit all landfill users, including private sector collectors.
Julian Fitter has been contributing to conservation for half a century.