Majority of submissions on kerbside collections tell Whanganui District Council no on food waste but yes to recycling

A majority of submissions on the council's plans do not favour food waste collection for Whanganui. Photo / Bevan Conley

Yes to kerbside recycling; no to food waste collection.

That's the clear message from written submissions to the Whanganui District Council's move to include the two kerbside services in its annual and long term plans.

Last year Whanganui District Council's policy and by-law committee voted in favour of adopting its Waste Minimisation and Management Plan 2021, which would lead to the two services introduced.

There were around 170 submissions in favour of a recycling service, with only 90 opposed to the idea.

The numbers were almost exactly reversed for the food waste collection, with more than 160 against and a little over 90 in favour.

Concerns about food waste collection ranged from bad smells of bins sitting in the sun to people already managing their own using compost techniques.

"I cannot believe Whanganui residents are that wealthy that they throw out that much food. I have zero food waste and I do not want to pay for this totally unnecessary service," wrote one submitter.

"Again it is an extra cost that I do not want," wrote another.

"I also don't fancy food sitting in a bin getting smelly for a week. They have this collection in the UK. I hate the smell of the food sitting in the bin," wrote another.

Not all were against the food waste pick-up, though.

"Absolutely awesome, can't happen soon enough for me!"

In support of kerbside recycling, Joanna Buckingham said the current model favoured people with the knowledge and the means to recycle.

"It makes sense to offer a recycling service, however there needs to be money allocated
and spent on education on how to reduce and reuse as well as understand what is recyclable in NZ.

"Otherwise people will just see this as a way to put it at the kerb and forget about it, including contaminating recycling with other waste."

The council received 282 formal submissions and 17 of the submitters had indicated they wished to speak in support of their submissions at a public hearing on Thursday.

The proposed kerbside recycling collection was expected to begin on July 1, 2023, and the kerbside food waste collection in July 2024.

The food waste service would be a commercial collection, that would accept items that can't be home composted such as cooked food, dairy, meat, fish and some compostable packaging.

The council's Waste Plan 2021 was the culmination of nine months of work by the council and the Whanganui Waste Advisory Group.

The intention of the plan is to divert around 23,000 tonnes of waste from landfills each year.

The Resource Recovery Centre would continue to operate for products that can't be collected from the kerbside and for rural households without kerbside recycling collection.

The annual rates increases were initially estimated at about $70 for kerbside recycling and about $40 for kerbside food waste. After detailed modelling by council, the estimates almost doubled to $134.16 for recycling and $60.84 for food waste.

Hearing of submissions will begin at 9:30am and adjourn at 1:05pm.

Councillors will deliberate on the submissions on Thursday, May 26.

The 282 submissions this year is a significant increase on previous years. There were 62 submissions received on the 2020/21 annual plan and 37 on the 2019/20 plan.