Hawke's Bay Today asked the six candidates running in the Hastings/Havelock North ward byelection how they would address the issue of rubbish and waste management and minimisation ...
Alezix Heneti
Amazing, fantastic, wonderful co-founders of Nourished for Nil (N4N), Christina McBeth and Louise Saurin, are a brilliant example of community members caring responsibly, redistributing generously, while reducing the annual 48 per cent of Hawke's Bay's organic landfill waste. Imagine 10 or 100 or even 1000 more men and women following their waste minimisation amazing achievement.
These two women with 30 volunteers and 17 cafes and bakeries plus Hastings Countdown and Flaxmere New World rescued 80 tonnes of food, from landfill and served 39,000 people, free food, in the last year - it gives a whole new meaning to fantastic recycling.
Good heads and good hearts reduce landfill waste. The draft waste minimisation plan
reduces waste going to landfill by 2020.
It's the whole community's responsibility to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfills.
Stuart Perry
I've been fortunate enough to have seen some great recycling in Australia and sadly seen the very worst in the Pacific Islands. We don't have to reinvent the wheel, just take some very common-sense steps to limit the waste stream. In Australia, there are towns where the recycling system is very efficient and pays for itself.
Many centres make a real effort to recycle and on-sell as much as they can. Green waste is converted into compost and sold, tree and clippings shredded and sold as mulch and ground cover, used building timber denailed and sold and so it goes on. There are many waste centres that are funded by the recycling – all it takes is the will to make it happen and a recycling industry springs up.
There are opportunities such as crushing glass and shredding plastics for roading compound and shredded tyres for concrete products.
Unfortunately, our recycling centre in Hastings is a joke and needs some serious changes to encourage the community to minimise the impact on our environment.
However, for councils to be able to operate efficiently and reduce the waste stream, we need a whole-of-nation approach because councils can't do this alone. Central government will need to take the lead to make it viable otherwise the country will drown in our own waste.
Chris Perley
The HDC is fortunate in having a dedicated waste minimisation team with a great understanding of innovatively treating waste as a resource – for example using the Omarunui landfill as a biogas generator. They understand the importance of both recycling and – critically – in building a culture within the community of personal responsibility in terms of what we buy, use, recycle and compost.
The key to waste is public engagement and culture change. We should continue to work innovatively at the waste end (how can it be used better), but like all conservation projects whether waste, energy, transport, or environment, the first principle is to cut back on the things that generate use and waste in the first place; unnecessary packaging, disposable bottles, supermarket bags, etc.
I will be particularly focused on the front end of waste – emphasising public engagement and pursuing policies that minimise the generation of waste at the gate.
Eileen Lawson
I think the council needs to lead the way with reducing rubbish and increasing recycling. This can be done through education, providing better methods of kerbside collection, improved access for rural people to transfer stations, and reducing waste at the source by making bylaws which address high use waste such as plastic. Lastly, investigating and supporting cost effective ways of using diverted material.
Half of the rubbish which goes into the Omarunui landfill is either recyclable or compostable. One of the first things the council could do is get rid of the plastic council collection bags and replace these with mobile garbage bins, which easily separate refuse, recycling and organic material.
I urge the public to fill in the HDC WMMP online survey; it only takes a couple of minutes and will assist the council in making an informed decision when reviewing the plan.
