Tauranga food scraps bins will not be collected from Thursday. Photo / George Novak
A shortage of kerbside collection drivers in Tauranga and the wider Western Bay of Plenty has forced councils to alter their collection services.
Tauranga City Council advised there would be a reduced service due to drivers either having contracted Covid-19 or are household contacts and needed to self-isolate.
The food
scraps bin will not be collected from Thursday.
Sustainability and Waste manager Sam Fellows said the reduced service would allow available drivers to focus on collecting the yellow-lid recycling bins, blue glass crates, green lid garden waste bins and red-lid general rubbish bins.
"We apologise for the inconvenience of the reduced service, but prioritising collections will ensure the health and safety of our community, drivers and staff in these trying times."
The council says that, for now, food scraps can only be disposed of in the red-lid rubbish bin, not in the garden waste bins as it previously stated.
"This is an evolving situation and we appreciate the community's patience and understanding during this trying time.
"We are working hard to maintain operations with our kerbside collection and at our transfer stations, and we will update the community as the situation changes."
The reduction in available drivers will also affect the council's Bin Change campaign, and the priority was to pick up as many collections as possible and residents needing new or replacement bins will see some delay.
If driver availability continued to worsen other services may be affected beginning with glass, followed by recycling then rubbish.
