Food waste is now collected from Ruapehu households weekly. Photo / Supplied
Food waste is now collected from Ruapehu households weekly. Photo / Supplied
Ruapehu district residents are being asked to reduce the amount of waste they produce by more than 50 per cent over the next two years.
The landfill at Taumarunui closed in October last year, and since then an average two truck and trailer loads of waste has had to betrucked to the Hampton Downs Landfill north of Hamilton each week.
Ruapehu District Council would like to reduce that to one truck-and-trailer load, customer services manager Margaret Hawthorne said.
The council's waste management and minimisation plan has set a target of 175kg of waste per person per year by the 2022-23 year, down from 368kg.
The slogan is Zero Waste by 2040, and the Environment Ministry is providing funding towards it. Ruapehu has a new food waste collection service, wants to turn its transfer stations into resource recovery centres and has employed a sustainability educator.
Ruapehu District Council plans to turn its Taumarunui transfer station into a dump shop. Photo / Supplied
In 2017 the district's 12,000 residents, and the 5000 visitors on a good day in the ski season, produced a total of 12,000 tonnes of solid waste, with an estimated 70 per cent of that able to be diverted from landfill.
An analysis found 30 per cent was food waste, 15 per cent was nappies and sanitary products, 14 per cent was potentially recyclable paper and 9 per cent was textiles.
Ruapehu residents with kerbside collection can now put out a bag of rubbish for a charge of $4 every week. They also have a 60-litre crate for recyclables, which are sent to Taupō for sorting and sale.
They can choose whether to collect food waste separately. Those who select that option receive a kitchen bin lined with a recyclable bag, and a larger kerbside bin which is collected every week.
Some people choose to compost their food waste at home but were offered the bins anyway.
"Quite a few people said 'No, I don't want one. I compost.' Our response was 'That's fantastic. Keep composting, but if you sell the house or get a tenant, you will have the bins ready'," Hawthorne said.
The food waste is taken to a Taumarunui facility near the closed landfill, where it is composted with green waste and wood chips. The resulting compost will be used to cap the landfill and feed council gardens.
Any excess was expected to be saleable by the end of this year, Hawthorne said.
A hot composting unit, similar to one used by Xtreme Zero Waste in Raglan, is being built at the facility.
Food composting was a bold move for a small rural council.
"I think we have been pretty innovative with our food waste collection, but it's hard to change habits," Hawthorne said.
Other councils are predicted to make similar moves, as pressure to reduce waste intensifies.
The district also has seven transfer stations. Waimarino's, in Ohakune, now diverts 50 per cent of the waste brought there away from landfill. Taumarunui is looking to set up a dump shop, like the one in Ohakune.
E-waste from all the transfer stations is sent to a Tokoroa facility for processing. Cleanfill waste is accepted at the Taumarunui facility.
The reduction results could be good, Hawthorne said. Some people said they were only putting out a rubbish bag once a fortnight since food waste collection started.
Any reduction would have to be confirmed by a waste audit that is taking place this week. Hawthorne said she especially wanted to know how much food waste was being thrown out as rubbish, rather than collected.
