Whanganui residents concerned over new Waste Management initiative

Hiring wheelie bins will be the only way Waste Management will collect your rubbish from December 31. Photo / Bevan Conley

Waste Management has confirmed people will still be able to drop off single-use rubbish bags at its Midtown Transfer Station when it ends rubbish bag collection at the end of the year.

The company last week announced that at the end of the year single-use plastic bags will no longer be collected in the Whanganui district with stickers not available from January 1, 2021.

It sparked an online backlash with a number of people fearing the river city would become a "rubbish dump".

A Waste Management spokeswoman said people will be able drop off bags for a standard charge of $6.50 which will apply for a 60-litre bag of 10kg or less.

She confirmed this would not affect staffing numbers and no jobs were being cut.

Some Facebook users commented that bins did not work for people who created minimal waste.

"That certainly does not work for me. I only put out one rubbish bag once every three months or so," one person commented.

Waste Management told the Chronicle that if a customer signed up to PayAsUGO they could pause collection if the bin wasn't full.

The customer will need to go into their account and pause their collection for that week and there is no charge when the service is paused.

Hiring wheelie bins will be the only way Waste Management will collect your rubbish from December 31. Photo / Bevan Conley

She said the customer has 48 hours before the scheduled collection to put their collection on hold for that week.

"So if a customer only wants one collection in a month, they will only pay for one collection. You only pay when you choose to have your bin collected."

For those living in rural areas, the spokeswoman said certain areas that border urban areas may be eligible for rubbish, recycling and garden waste collection.

She said all green waste will be transferred to the Liffiton Transfer Station and then transported in bulk to the Awapuni Resource Recovery Park in Palmerston North to be turned into compost.