Tauranga City Council's new kerbside collection bins ready for roll out

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The first of the 165,000 bins for Tauranga City Council's new kerbside collections will be delivered from March 15.

The new rubbish, recycling and food scraps bins will be delivered city-wide to kerbsides during March, April and May, ahead of the first collections beginning in July.

The bins will be rolled out in stages, with the following groups of suburbs receiving their bins together:

• Central suburbs (Tauranga Central and South, Ōtūmoetai, Matua, Bellevue, Brookfield, Bethlehem, Judea, Gate Pa, Parkvale and Greerton). These suburbs will receive their bins first between March 15 and early April.

• Southern and western suburbs (Poike, Tauriko, Ōropi, Pyes Pa, Harini, Maungatapu, Welcome Bay and Ohauiti). It is estimated that these suburbs will receive their bins in mid-April, once deliveries to the central suburbs are complete.

• Coastal suburbs (Kairua, Matapihi, Pāpāmoa Beach, Pāpāmoa and Mount Maunganui). It is estimated that these suburbs will receive their bins in mid-April and May once deliveries to all other suburbs are complete.

Some of the kerbside bin lids at Port of Tauranga waiting for assembly.Photo / George Novak

Tauranga City Council manager sustainability and waste Sam Fellows said it's a mammoth task to deliver the 165,000 bins to 55,000 households.

"We're starting deliveries early to ensure all households in our city have their new rubbish, recycling and food scraps bins in advance of the new kerbside collections starting from July 1," he said.

"The time frames are estimates and we'll be providing regular updates on our website on how the roll out is going, including what suburbs will be receiving their bins in the upcoming week."

The new bins will be delivered to the kerbside in front of each household.

"When your new bins are delivered, we suggest you check that the property address on the side of the bins is correct and then wheel them inside your property until the new kerbside collections begin in July."

Each household will receive a rubbish wheelie bin and recycling wheelie bin, as well as a small food scraps bin –which will be inside the rubbish bin to make it easier for delivery. The rubbish and recycling bins may not arrive on the same day.

Households should already have an existing blue glass recycling bin, but if their bin is missing, they can contact the council to arrange for a new one to be delivered.

An information brochure with a collection calendar will be inside the food scraps bin, with the collection calendar showing households when their first collection for each bin will be in July, as well as timings for all collections for the rest of the year.

People with existing bins from private collection companies that no longer wish to use these bins, are encouraged to contact their private waste company to discuss their contract and the best date for removal of these bins from their property ahead of the council's new kerbside collections.

Those with limited space for storage of their existing bins and the new kerbside bins, could consider returning their existing bins earlier, and using the weekly council rubbish bag service instead – up until June 30, 2021, before the new collections begin in July.

Households can sign up for the optional four-weekly or fortnightly garden waste collections at www.tauranga.govt.nz/gardenwaste.

"Almost 70 per cent of Tauranga's household waste currently sent to landfill could be recycled or composted instead. Together, let's reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill," Fellows said.

The new rate-funded system will make reducing waste easier, more accessible and more affordable for the community as a whole, and is expected to halve the amount of waste the average household sends to landfill each year by 2028.