Tuesday 9 June 2009

Recycling initiatives to be phased in

The Clutha District Council will introduce recycling drop-off centres next year and a second wheelie bin for recyclables in 2011/12, but has decided against a third wheelie bin for green waste at this stage.

The decisions were made as Council finalises its Long Term Plan 2009-19 and follow extensive feedback from the public.

A recycling drop-off centre will be introduced over the next year at Mt Cooee and possibly other parts of the district including Milton, Lawrence and Tapanui depending on costs.

Council then plans to introduce a second wheelie bin for recyclables in 2011/12, hopefully to be done in cooperation with a neighbouring authority. This will allow time for discussions with neighbouring authorities to take place and for Council to collect its share of new waste minimisation levy funding, which will help to reduce the rates impact when the second wheelie bin for recyclables is introduced. 

As the second wheelie bin will result in reduced residual waste pickup, recyclables will only be collected once a fortnight, alternating with rubbish only collected the following week. This means no extra collection costs, and once the waste minimisation levy is also taken into account, the second wheelie bin will cost about $18 per property, per year.

Council had also proposed introducing a third wheelie bin for green waste collection.  This proposal was due mainly to the new Emissions Trading Scheme legislation, under which Council will have to purchase ‘carbon units’ for methane emissions from the Mt Cooee landfill from 1 January 2013. Put simply, the legislation will require Council to divert as much green waste as possible from Mt Cooee from this time in order to keep the cost of purchasing carbon units at a minimum.

However, public feedback overwhelmingly opposed the third wheelie bin for green waste and therefore Council decided to defer this and reassess the costs and benefits of this collection in two years time when there is more certainty around the Emissions Trading Scheme.

In the meantime, Council will be working with the community to provide more information, education, and possibly assisting with community and home composting to cut down the amount of waste going to landfill. $20,000 a year for the next two years has been included in Council’s budgets for this purpose.   

ENDS