When your collection rolls around on a Red Week – you can put your food scraps bin, landfill bin and green waste bin (if you have subscribed to this service) on your kerbside to be collected.
If it is a Yellow Week – you can put your food scraps bin, mixed recycling bin and glass crate out on your kerbside come your collection day.
You’ll see that each bin is only getting collected fortnightly, with the exception of our food scraps bin which will be picked up weekly.
It will take a bit of getting used to – but it is not unlike what many other Council’s around the country are now doing for their collections and it’s becoming the new standard (New Plymouth has even been on a fortnightly collection system for years). We know that change can be a bit daunting and will feel like it’s a bit impossible before you’ve given it a go, but did you know that most landfill bins are made up to 38% of food scraps. With that in mind, hopefully this starts to look a little easier.
When your new set of bins are delivered, there will be a guide and calendar tucked into your food scraps bin. Please have a read of these to make sure you fully understand how the new system is going to work.
Why is it changing?
Our current solid waste contract was lapsing at the end of September 2024, when we went out to tender the new contract in 2023 it made sense to review our current service.
We went out to public consultation at the end of last year with two different options as part of our Waste Management and Minimisation Plan. After receiving 777 submissions on the subject, Councillors had to make the decision of which way to go, which wasn't an easy task 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 South Taranaki Mayor Phil Nixon. “We are simply sending too much waste to landfill, which is not sustainable either environmentally or financially.”
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 $60 levy. Government legislation also requires all councils to have a kerbside food scrap collection in place by 2030, which we are proud to say this new collection covers.
Bin Deliveries (Monday 5 August - Friday 13 September)