At a council strategy and policy committee, councillor Michael Law asked if there could be fewer smaller events in the district as a result of the change.
Council policy adviser Hannah Rogers said there were still tweaks to be done regarding where the threshold sat in terms of event sizes.
Smaller events that didn’t produce a lot of waste would probably not have to make a plan.
“We don’t plan for this to be overly litigious, which is one of the reasons we’ve resisted putting a really hard line in.
“That’s when you start getting into arguments about what meets the threshold and what doesn’t.
“This is supposed to be something we can use to work together with people planning events.”
She said most waste management planning was currently voluntary, regardless of the size of the event.
Proposals for the bylaw went to public consultation this week, with submissions open until March 20.
One proposal would give the council the ability to collect data about waste collected by private companies.
Council waste adviser Stuart Hylton said it would be based on tonnages and the types of waste ending up in landfill.
“They [private waste companies] will be obligated to tell us that at a reasonably high level - enough to inform our waste planning into the future.”
Kerbside rules
Another sets the rules - 36 of them - for the council-provided kerbside collection, which is due to begin in July.
The draft bylaw said waste must be sorted into types identified by collection services and into the approved containers, which needed to be put out between 5pm the night before collection day and 7am on collection day.
The occupier and/or the manager of any premises is responsible for any waste not collected because of non-compliance.
“Any waste or recyclables not collected shall be removed from the roadside by the occupier and returned to the occupier’s premises by noon on the day following collection or within such other time period as specified by a control made under this bylaw.”
Councillor Rob Vinsen asked if the council was adequately resourced to enforce the bylaw.
Hylton said in terms of the kerbside service, the contractor would be the first port of call.
“They will be doing the enforcement - the assessment of contamination etc.
“As officers, we will be coming in behind that to do any enforcement which, essentially, is to not accept the product at the kerb or take away the bin in extreme circumstances.
“That will be a soft approach to start with, as our community gets used to the service.”
Vinsen said people needed to take responsibility for their own waste and that was the message the council needed to get out.
“If you’re putting on events, you’ve got a responsibility to take care of your own waste.
“Some events are doing it quite well now, but not all.”
Council policy manager Elise Broadbent said there was ongoing engagement with the events community on the new proposal.
“These provisions are standard across bylaws [and] across the country. This is not a novel approach.
“We will work on developing guidelines to support this bylaw through the consultation process.”
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multi-media journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.
