Food waste collection strikes a green note

The trial will continue until the service was extended across Auckland next year. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Successful trial on Shore to be continued until service rolled out across region.

A proposed Auckland-wide food waste collection has been tested in parts of the North Shore for 15 months and has the co-operation of nine out of 10 households in using a separate bin for kitchen scraps.

Launched as a three-month trial in May last year, the trial was offered for 2000 homes in Takapuna, Milford, Forrest Hill and Northcote Central. However, the time has been extended and the number of homes in the free weekly collection service has grown to 4000.

Auckland Council solid waste manager Ian Stupple said, "It's been really good as far as seeing people's long-term habits and ways to increase people's regular participation and the amount they put out.

"We extended it after doing a survey in July where we found 87 per cent still use it and only 4 per cent never tried.

"The households are putting out about 4kg a week of organic waste - slightly more than we anticipated."

A kitchen caddy with compostable liners for bagging is put in a 23-litre bin at the kerbside for collection.

Mr Stupple said the trial would continue until the service was extended across Auckland next year.

Separating food scraps and recyclable items for free collection would be important in reducing waste volume when the "pay-as-you-throw" system came in for normal rubbish bins, he said.

But first, more information was needed on designing the service to suit the needs of different areas and to estimate the amount and type of waste expected and the effects of seasonal patterns.

"On the back of that we need to build a processing plant. We think there is 50,000 tonnes of food waste out there but if we are going to capture less than that, we don't want to build something that might not be used."

Manurewa and Papakura will join the trial, with about 50 families taking part in each area.

Food scraps pick-up

3 trials among Auckland households.

4000 households in Takapuna, Milford, Forrest Hill, Northcote.

50 households in Manurewa and Papakura added to the trial.

23 litre bin for bagged scraps collected weekly.

87% still use the North Shore service after 15 months.

4% never tried it.

98% of those who tried it were satisfied with the service.