Napier, Hastings people support wheelie bins over rubbish bags for household collection

The review of the joint waste management and minimisation plan is a statutory requirement aimed at reducing the amount of rubbish going to the Omarunui landfill. Photo / file

Feedback from consultation over Napier and Hastings' waste collection, recycling and minimisation is mostly in favour of swapping rubbish bags for wheelie bins - as long as the costs don't escalate.

The Napier City and Hastings District councils are to deliberate next week on more than 6000 submissions received on their joint draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (WMMP) 2018-2024 proposals.

The key issues were whether people supported introducing wheelie bins for general rubbish, how and when they wanted their recycling collected and whether they supported kerbside organic waste collection.

In a staff report to the councils, staff said there was both support and concern regarding wheelie bins, with more people in favour of the 80 litre bins, collected weekly, rather than 120 litre bins.

While cost was a driver for favouring the 120 litre option, the amount of rubbish households generated was also an issue, with questions over whether even the smaller 80 litre option was still too large, the report said.

"Providing for excess volume is seen as a negative incentive and unfair for households that are small or put great effort in diversion of waste from landfill."

Among the submissions were requests for flexibility, including the wheelie bin size, frequency of collection and the addition of a user-pays element to the service.

Council staff noted the local waste collection industry supported the overarching goal of resource recovery and waste reduction but opposed the introduction of wheelie bins.

"A large regional contract for residential kerbside collection is seen to be compromising local business and council's ability to respond to market and technology changes.

"It is suggested council build upon and support services adequately provided commercially and protect local business."

Last year 84,000 tonnes of waste went to Omarunui Landfill from Hastings and Napier, nearly 80 per cent of which could be composted or recycled. Photo / file

In terms of recycling, the councils had proposed introducing council-provided crates and suggested changes to the frequency of collection.

Fifty-four per cent of respondents were in favour of weekly collections (3x 60l crates), while 46 per cent supported fortnightly (4x 60l crates) collections.

Staff said people supported weekly collection as it was easier to remember, and would mean less build up of recycling between collections.

"There are, however, concerns, questions and suggestions. Many believe wheelie bin collections for recyclables are a more convenient option and result in far less windblown litter.

"A large proportion of current users of the service use their own crates and are happy with this approach."

In addition, many people used the drop-off stations provided across the region in addition to the kerbside service, while some only used the drop-off centres as they found the kerbside collection messy or had no other option because they lived outside the collection zone.

A new proposal to offer a collection service for organic waste was supported by 58 per cent of submitters.

About 38 per cent favoured the option with the inclusion of food waste, 31 per cent said they would not use such a service, and 11 per cent supported funding the existing organic waste models.

It was clear the volume of organic waste produced varied between households, and there were another of other suggestions put forward in submissions.

These included compost or worm farm systems, commercial green waste collection, drop off centres like transfer stations, BioRich, PanPac, on-site burning and through the wheelie bin collection for rubbish.

People were also asked their thoughts on waste education, and the report said there was clear support for an increased focus on waste minimisation education initiatives, potentially focusing on recycling and education in schools.

The joint council waste futures project steering committee will consider the submissions on Monday next week at the council chambers starting at 9am.