Household green-waste recyclers have called on Auckland Council to ban garden and food waste from general rubbish collection bins.
Green waste totalling about 30,000 tonnes a year is being collected from Auckland gardeners by private firms for composting.
However, the Independent Green Recyclers Collective says a ban, a brochure and a special bin for kitchen food waste, could save a lot more rubbish from being carted to landfills.
Collective spokesman Peter Howes said it did not class food waste as "green waste". Food waste made up 40 per cent of the rubbish collected from Auckland homes and needed a more extensive, costly and hygienic process to compost than that for garden cuttings and weeds. He told a hearing on the council draft waste management and minimisation plan that a proposal for a ratepayer-funded organic waste collection was misguided if it allowed food and green waste to be thrown into the same wheelie bin.
A better way was for the council to bring in a weekly food waste only collection using a 23-litre lockable bin, including a 7-litre caddy, lined with corn starch bags.