Editorial: Our landfill is wasting away

Linda Hall, Assistant Editor, Hawke's Bay Today.

I was shocked to read some of the information that came out of the the Hastings District and the Napier City Councils' joint waste futures project steering committee meeting held yesterday.

Fact: 58 per cent of the rubbish collected in kerbside bags is recyclable. That means more than half of the people living in Napier and Hastings don't recycle properly.

I find this hard to believe when social media is full of people "saying no to plastic bags".

Fact: 41 per cent of this rubbish was compostable kitchen waste — that's incredible.
Kitchen waste is valuable compost.

I really don't think there is any excuse for this. I realise people don't have big backyards and gardens any more but most people have a bit of dirt. Dig a hole and bury it, collect it for someone who does have a compost bin, or get a worm farm. They are brilliant and take up little space.

But it gets worse — get this — waste from wheelie bins was 85 per cent recyclable or compostable, 75 per cent made up of kitchen and garden waste.

At this rate the Omarunui landfill has only 40 years of use left and as the population continues to grow I suppose that might even shrink further.

One of the things we really need to address is to "refuse refuse" in the first place.
Don't buy wrapped food that doesn't need to be wrapped. I've seen an example of this — a photo posted to Facebook of a banana for sale on a polystyrene tray covered in cling wrap. They have their own skin, they don't need wrapping.

We really do need to start making sensible choices or else our grandchildren are going to have a big problem on their hands.