Auckland Council consults on waste management

by Trish Allen

Remember the old days when there was a deposit on glass drink bottles and when you took them back you got money for them? As a kid I remember collecting bottles to get enough money to go to the movies. You never saw bottles being littered in those days because they were worth something. Well, perhaps it’s back to the future.

Asking government to put in place schemes for refundable deposits on drink containers and other compulsory product stewardship for e-waste, batteries, and so on, is something that’s been put forward in the new Auckland Council Waste Management and Minimisation Plan, currently out for public submission. I have been contracted by Council to raise awareness about the plan, but the views in this article are my personal ones.

The Plan is bold and visionary, with a long-term aspirational goal of zero waste by 2040. We all have a unique opportunity to have our say on a major resource management issue that affects us all.

So why a new plan? Firstly, the government passed the Waste Minimisation Act in 2008 requiring councils to have a plan in place by 2012. And secondly, with the amalgamation of the seven councils across the Auckland region, we currently have seven systems for waste; all different. Here in Rodney, we pay to dispose of our rubbish when we buy bags, but 55 percent of Aucklanders don’t – it’s paid for in rates and that means there is little incentive to reduce waste.

You may be shocked to know that 65 percent of what currently goes to landfill in our household rubbish doesn’t need to; in fact, it’s a resource. Half of it is food and green waste, which could be composted and 15 percent is further recyclables. Imagine if we could divert all that from landfill.

Landfills are extremely expensive to build, almost impossible to find new sites for, and ticking time bombs for the environment if they start to leak. Throwing our waste, which includes heaps of usable materials and resources into a big hole in the ground is an outdated concept. Much of these wasted materials can be turned into new products, jobs, or better yet, not produced in the first place.

So what does the new plan propose?

• to get the 50 percent food and green waste out of the waste stream by providing an extra small wheelie bin for weekly collection (paid for by rates and a small surplus from the refuse bin charge)

• to collect a bigger range of recyclables by providing bigger wheelie bins for fortnightly collection (paid for by rates and a small surplus from the refuse bins)

• to charge every household for fortnightly collection of refuse, the stuff that has to go to landfill (no different for us, we already pay but most Aucklanders don’t)

• to do away with bags and going to wheelie bins (this may not suit you if you have a long driveway and no tow-bar to attach your wheelie bin to)

• to provide an inorganic collection of some sort – do we want the mess on our roadsides that a kerbside collection would create? Would a drop-off point suit us better? Or, would we prefer the booking system that Waitakere currently has whereby householders can ring up Council to have inorganic waste picked up from inside their property?

• to set up Resource Recovery Centres where unwanted stuff can be dropped off – there it gets sorted, repaired, sold or dismantled and the materials recovered and re-used. These are highly successful in places such as Nelson, Wanaka, Whangarei and Kaitaia to name a few. They create jobs.

Some people are concerned about what will happen to the local companies who currently collect our waste. I’ve been told that there may be job changes for local contractors but not necessarily job loss.

There’s much, much more in the plan – you can read it online or at the library. The plan will be adopted this year and will come into force in 2015.

I encourage you to make a submission – this is something that affects us all so it’s important to let Council know what we want. To make a submission go to www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/wasteplan or pick up a submission form from the library or Matakana Gull Motors.

Submissions on the new plan close on January 31.

Pictured above: Trish Allen at Matakana Farmers Market talking about waste.