Tauranga's kerbside collection could cost less - but not everyone convinced

Glass overflows in a recycling bin in Mount Maunganui. Photo / file

Tauranga ratepayers could be looking at paying $292 a year for proposed kerbside waste collection - a drop of nearly $20 from the current plans.

But not everyone is convinced.

In a report presented to Tauranga City Council at Tuesday's Projects Service and Operations Committee, corporate and strategy planning manager Jeremy Boase asked for permission to continue with issuing a registration in interest, engage the community with education programmes, and roll out services from July 2021, if not before.

Boase said in order to gain the best idea of the best service for the city, the team needed the ability to continue seeking tenders to work out what would be needed "on the ground".

"It will really get real once we've got a preferred tenderer on board," he said.

A summary of forecasted costings was tabled at $292 a year, including processing fees and collections fees and administrative costs for 56,000 households. Current plans for a city-wide kerbside waste collection are forecast to cost $313 a year per household.

Councillor Larry Baldock said he would not vote against going forward with further analysis "but I'm very sceptical of delivering this at this cost".

Baldock said he did not believe the reduced rate was likely, once a preferred tenderer was found. He said he did not want to assume the proposed cost would not increase.

Cr Catherine Stewart said she shared Baldock's concerns.

"I just don't see how this is going to play out in the long term," she said.

Councillors discussed different types of waste and agreed there needed to be more done about the amount of food waste going into landfill when it could be better disposed of.

Council figures show 31.9 per cent of the city's total rubbish was organic kitchen waste.

Cr John Robson said it was important elected members understood the issue probably while Cr Max Mason said managing kerbside recycling was part of Tauranga's "growing up phase".

Despite Tauranga's population growth, the amount of kerbside recycling had dropped since 2005.