​​Move to Fortnightly Collection - October 2024​

South Taranaki district councillors agreed on a fortnightly urban kerbside collection service, with weekly food scraps collection, at Monday’s (27 Nov) Extraordinary Council meeting.

The decision, which won't be implemented until October 2024, was made as part of adopting the council’s Waste Management and Minimisation Plan and followed public consultation which saw 777 submissions received.

South Taranaki Mayor Phil Nixon was pleased with the large number of submissions made, but added the decision wasn't any easier given the near even 50/50 split between those wanting weekly and fortnightly collection.

“Ultimately, we felt the fortnightly option provided the best balance between keeping costs down (fortnightly was considerably cheaper than weekly collection) while encouraging people to reduce waste and send less waste to landfill,” says Nixon.

“We are simply sending too much waste to landfill, which is not sustainable either environmentally or financially,” he says.

Councillors also decided that residents would be able to purchase an extra general waste bin if they had special circumstances (such as larger families).

Currently, South Taranaki residents send around 120 kgs of waste per person to landfill each year, which is 30 kgs more per person than New Plymouth residents.

“Part of the reason for that is New Plymouth’s kerbside waste is only collected fortnightly, with food waste collected weekly. We also know that about 60% of what we're putting in our rubbish bins could be recycled or composted. We simply must change our behaviour and do better.”

Mayor Nixon says managing the district’s waste is only going to get more expensive due to government levies being placed on all waste sent to landfill and increased costs for the kerbside collection service such as fuel and new collection trucks.

For every tonne of waste sent to landfill, the council must pay the government a $50 levy, which goes up to $60 next July. Government legislation also requires all councils to have a kerbside food scrap collection in place by 2030.

“By changing the bin sizes for our kerbside recycling and general waste and moving to a fortnightly collection and introducing a 25-litre food waste bin collected weekly, we expect to be able to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and keep cost increases to a minimum.”

The new kerbside service doesn’t start until October 2024.

Other initiatives in the Waste Management and Minimisation Plan include establishing a regional organic waste facility, having a regional approach for Building Act changes for waste reduction in construction, pushing for government mandates on product packaging and working with community groups and repair businesses to expand ‘repair cafes’ throughout the region.