Whanganui’s kerbside recycling service collects 143 tonnes of materials in first month

Low Cost Bins' Daniel Austin in action during a kerbside recycling run in Springvale. Photo / Mike Tweed

The first month of Whanganui District Council’s kerbside recycling service has gone smoothly, with 143 tonnes of materials collected.

Project manager Trish Taylor-Pope said the service had been accepted by the majority of the community and the number of calls and emails was far less than anticipated.

“We did a lot of talking with other councils that have rolled out the kerbside service and they all said to be prepared for a significant amount of traffic coming through,” she said.

“We are hoping that our education material, public consultation and going out and engaging with the community have helped with a lot of the queries.”

Her report to the council’s operations and performance committee said there were 323 phone calls and 227 CRMs (customer relationship management) about the service.

There was an average of four missed collections per day and 24 sets of replacement crates had been issued.

Taylor-Pope told the committee a local businessman was retrofitting trolleys to transport crates and they had been popular with Whanganui residents, with 70 purchased so far.

There had not been significant amounts of litter on the streets.

The most common form of non-compliance was items not being sorted correctly, with 150 cases since the service began, the report said.

Councillor Philippa Baker-Hogan said lids were accepted at the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre but not for the kerbside service, which could create confusion in the community.

Council waste manager Morgan Harrison said lids were not accepted at kerbside because of the standardisation of items through the Ministry for the Environment, which applied to all councils in the country.

That was introduced on February 1.

Councillor Rob Vinsen said “nearly everywhere else in the country” had fortnightly collections.

“I’m a pretty avid recycler and two-weekly is enough for me.”

He said the kerbside service added $147 per ratepayer to the rates demand for 2024/25.

“In the Western Bay of Plenty, where I also pay for a recycling service, it’s $149 which includes the [general] waste collection.

“We are going on top of that.”

Vinsen holds the council’s waste portfolio, which has replaced the waste advisory group.

Harrison said the service would be reviewed annually.

Councillor Ross Fallen said all his neighbours’ crates were full weekly, with six people he talked to admitting they had never used the resource recovery centre.

The centre remains open and is now run by the council.

“We are seeing tonnes and tonnes of recycling not going to landfill,” Fallen said.

“In Whanganui, we are trying to do our bit on this planet to protect the environment, and we are doing it darn well.”

Harrison said plastics, tin and aluminium were going to a sort line in Wellington, with fibre (Oji) and glass (Visy) both going to Auckland.

“We are going to undertake a piece of work on how we operate at the recycling centre and what services the community would like to see there.

“We will look to introduce a survey of visitors to the centre over the coming weeks – to understand what they use the site for and what they would like to see at the site.”

Low Cost Bins operates three recycling collection trucks a day, with another vehicle collecting paper and cardboard. Crates must be on the kerb by 7am on the collection day.

Mike Tweed is a multimedia 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 the Whanganui District Council.