Tauranga City Council has nearly halved its rate of household waste going to landfill just a year after the launch of a new rates-funded kerbsite waste collection service.
Council Sustainability and Waste Manager, Sam Fellows says the efforts of the local community had made a “massive difference” to landfill deposits.
“We put this success down to a fantastic effort by the people of Tauranga to embrace the changes, and use the new service correctly, as well as more households using our food scraps and garden waste collections than expected,” he said.
“Almost halving the amount of waste going to landfill within a year is a really impressive result.”
Council’s new kerbside service added the collection of food scraps, recycling, rubbish, and optional garden waste bins to its existing glass recycling collections.
Council Team Leader of Waste Operations, Hope Lawsen says less food scraps and garden waste are showing up in rubbish bins.
“By putting these into the food scraps and garden waste bins, they get turned into nutrient-rich compost that’s used on orchards and farms across the Bay of Plenty and Waikato instead,” she said.
“Households across the city have adapted quickly to the new service, helped along the way by our friendly bin inspector, who walks up to 45 kilometres each week through the streets of Tauranga to double check the right things are going into the recycling bins – leaving behind information for those who still need a bit of a hand.”
