Covid 19 issues put pause on Hamilton City Council food scraps collection

Food scrap bins are not being picked in Hamilton because Covid-19 is causing a staff shortage. Photo / Hamilton City Council

Hamilton's food scrap bins are not being collected for now, due to Covid-19 related staff shortages. Staff will focus on continuing to collect glass, mixed recycling, and rubbish from the kerbside.

Hamilton City Council says it will continue to re-evaluate the situation to ensure the food scraps collection can be reinstated as soon as staff levels allow.

The council's rubbish and recycling manager, Trent Fowles, said staff shortages also mean there will likely be delays for glass collections for the next few days, but the team are working hard to continue to collect rubbish and recycling.

"The staff able to work will be spread out across the collection teams, with a key focus on catching up on glass collections that have already seen delays due to staff shortages."

There are also some delays in glass collections in the city and glass will not be sorted at the kerb but recycled as mixed coloured glass. Photo / Supplied

While the food scraps service is not operating, residents can take food scraps to the Lincoln Street Refuse Transfer Station free of charge for a contactless drop-off.

"If you have capacity, food scraps can be stored in a freezer, or can be home composted (excluding meat, bones and shells). If none of these options work, you can put food scraps in the red rubbish bin," said Fowles.

While council contractors are short on staff, glass will not be sorted at the kerb, but will instead be recycled as mixed coloured glass.

"Our drivers can collect glass faster without colour sorting, this will help them catch up this week."

Fowles urges residents to be patient and kind to drivers while this is worked through.

"Council will continue to provide updates on the free mobile app Antenno. This includes when food scraps can be collected again.

"Due to the high numbers of Omicron cases and the isolation requirements, we will have varying staff availability across all council services, not just rubbish and recycling collections. While we have good planning in place to try to minimise any impact, this will affect our ability to continue some of our services to the community safely," a statement from the council says.

This includes the connection of new drinking water, stormwater and wastewater services. Current timeframes for new connections are about 12-16 weeks from the date a complete application is sent through to the council, depending on its complexity.

If anyone hasn't downloaded the council's Antenno app yet, you can get it free on Google Play or the Apple Store.

Alternatively, you can find out about all the council's services and how they may be impacted by Covid-19 at Hamilton.govt.nz/changes.