Tauranga's kerbside recycling collection could soon contain more than just glass recycling. Photo / File
Tauranga's kerbside recycling collection could soon contain more than just glass recycling. Photo / File
A Tauranga residents association is expressing concern over Tauranga City Council's decision to take over kerbside recycling collection from current contractors, saying people are quite happy to keep the status quo.
But the city's mayor says a large number of recyclables are sent to landfill unnecessarily under the current system.
Matua Residents Association chairman Richard Kluit said there were some concerns, but he hadn't spoken with enough residents yet to know exactly what their thoughts were.
"I know there's a lot of thoughts ... some people are quite happy with their current providers," he said.
"There's been other comments from the elderly if they live down a right-of-way, that they wouldn't be able to take [their recycling] to the roadside."
Tauranga City Council is proposing to add a new kerbside food scraps, recycling and rubbish collection to their existing kerbside collections, which only collect glass recycling.
The council is proposing to give residents the choice of different sized and cost wheelie bins for waste collections.
While the council is proposing the service to be fully funded by rates it is also asking the community if they'd prefer a "pay-as-you-throw" rubbish collection which would involve buying tags from the supermarket.
Mayor Tenby Powell said he was looking forward to making "positive changes".
"Tauranga has one of the worst rates per capita in New Zealand for sending household waste to landfill," he said.
"More importantly, nearly 70 per cent of household waste that is sent to landfill could be recycled or composted."
Matua Residents Association chairman Richard Kluit. Photo / File
Powell said at the moment, Tauranga residents who wished to recycle were required to visit a transfer station in their own time or pay for a contractor to remove their recycling.
This meant that not enough recycling waste made it to the transfer stations and instead went to landfill, he said.
The council's head of infrastructure Nic Johansson said the new proposal would be a "win-win" for the council and ratepayers, as it would reduce the long-term costs of managing waste for the city.
The final cost of the service will only be known once the tender process is complete in early 2020.
