Streamlined waste disposal for Super City

In a move to fix the rubbish collection system, operational control of all rubbish collected at the kerb has been taken over by the Auckland Council. Photo / Natalie Slade

Aucklanders could be penalised for not recycling as part of a move to streamline how the city's waste is collected.

The Auckland Council has moved to control all of the city's waste stream in order to fix a collection system that the waste industry calls "misaligned".

The Environment and Sustainability Forum voted yesterday to have operational control over all rubbish collected at the kerb rather than today's 15 per cent.

Supporters say the move serves the true purpose of the Super City - streamlining systems across all regions for efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

The public-private arrangement could scrap competition for landfill waste and give control of transfer stations - the gateways to landfills - back to the council.

It is inspired by Waitakere City's waste model, and could reduce the distance travelled by rubbish trucks and introduce the collection of compost from the kerb.

The council will also decide whether to extend Waitakere's user-pays system throughout the region.

Under the system, people who send all their rubbish to landfills without sorting it pay a higher fee than those who re-use and recycle.

Auckland has a mish-mash of user-pays and rates-subsidised rubbish and recycling systems that channel most waste into the hands of two private operators, Transpacific Industries and Envirowaste Services.

The potential cost, or savings, of the move are not yet known.

If the council adopted a user-pays policy, it could see a reduction in rates by $30 million. If the council bore the complete costs of the move, rates could increase by $15 million. The actual cost will fall somewhere in the middle.

A council report released last year showed $23 million could be saved by reducing the distance trucks travelinstead of crossing the city to sites owned by the same company.

Envirowaste chair Kim Ellis welcomed the restructuring, saying the system was "a very dysfunctional arrangement".

He did not believe it would undermine waste companies' investment in landfill space and infrastructure.

"It will create new opportunities. If the councils take control of the transfer stations, then we will just move our business interests upstream, to divert as much from landfill as possible.

"We're hugely incentivised to look at what we're collecting from our customers and then maybe sorting them. It's win-win, potentially.

"This is what the Super City was made for. If they can make it work, and keep the Bob Harvey vision, it could be the definitive thing for the new Auckland City."

Mayor Len Brown's goal of 40 per cent less waste by 2025 was raised yesterday, to an aspirational goal of zero waste to landfill. Councillors moved "zero waste" was a concept, not a definite goal to be reached by a deadline.