Opinion: Give rubbish system a chance

Well I for one am excited about my new rubbish and recycling bins arriving - as we report today, they will start being delivered this week.

My recycling has been piling up at home ever since the changes to the in-town Recycling Centre made my weekly visits there nowhere near as fun (the fun was in the sorting, in my humble view!).

So from the end of next month, I will simply be able to pop it all out on the roadside.

Plus, I like the idea of a big sealed bin I can simply wheel down my driveway the night before collection day - putting paper bags out the night before always came with the risk of waking up in the morning to rubbish strewn all over the road.

As with any change, it may not suit everyone and there may be teething issues. Readers have expressed concern that some residents, be they elderly or have difficult driveways, may have trouble getting their bins to the roadside.

Others are worried about bins sitting out on the footpath all day, advertising who on the street is not home. The former is a legitimate concern, which the council needs to work with affected residents to solve. The latter, in my view, is not so much. It's usually not difficult to tell who is out all day, an empty bin outside a house is unlikely to lead to a spate of day time burglaries.

Rotorua Lakes Council says the new service will save about $500,000 a year, which should please ratepayers. While at the same time, making it easier to recycle and do our bit for the environment.

It's impossible to please everyone and in time perhaps the naysayers will be proved right. But in the meantime, why not give the new system a chance before writing it off as rubbish?