By WAYNE THOMPSON
Households in Waitakere and North Shore cities will have the choice of putting kitchen waste in a separate bin, or paying more for their rubbish collection.
The cities plan kitchen waste collections from July next year in a bid to cut rubbish in landfills. The food scraps will feed a high-tech composting plant in Waitakere City.
It is likely rubbish bags will be dearer.
The only local body in the country collecting separated food scraps is the Mackenzie District Council in South Canterbury.
North Shore's kitchen-waste collection would be paid for through a levy on all rubbish going to landfill, says works chairman Joel Cayford.
This would result in a small increase in rubbish collection charges.
But Mr Cayford said if people took steps to reduce their rubbish, such as separating kitchen waste, the small increase could be avoided.
"People will pay a bit more to put rubbish into a hole in the ground and less for organic waste, which can be processed, recycled and used."
Waitakere solid wastes manager Jon Roscoe said rising landfill charges for dumping meant kitchen-waste collection next year would be justified on economic grounds.
Between them, he said, Waitakere and North Shore produced 20,000 tonnes of food scraps from residential collections, or nearly half the weight of their domestic waste.
Waitakere had a resource consent to process food waste in its vertical composting units at The Concourse, near Lincoln Rd.
The cities' household rubbish now goes to the Redvale landfill, which has a life of 20 years at existing disposal rates. It would cost between $150 million and $200 million to replace.
In a North Shore City trial last year at Bayswater, 40 per cent of 400 households regularly put vegetable and meat scraps in special bins.
Mr Cayford said the council was now asking citizens to indicate their support for a voluntary weekly collection and composting service.
The council's draft annual plan says a kitchen-waste collection would cost $1.5 million a year. But any service was conditional upon citizens' support for the council adopting a "resource efficiency levy".
The levy was to cover future increases and additional services.
North Shore households pay for their rubbish collection by an annual uniform charge of $26.89 and $1.30 a bag or $1.10 a bag by coupon.
Waitakere households pay an annual uniform charge of $10 and $1.20 a bag.
Auckland City and Manukau City Councils have no immediate plans for collecting food scraps. They are awaiting further research into composting systems.
Food waste
* Waitakere and North Shore cities combined produce 20,000 tonnes of household food scraps a year.
* Kitchen scraps make up 45 per cent of the weight of rubbish going to landfills.
* Diverting scraps for processing into compost will save ratepayers as landfill charges rise.
* The cities plan to introduce a collection for kitchen scraps in July 2005.
Herald Feature: Conservation and Environment
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