Sign In / Register
An estimated 20,000 kilograms of food waste from Rodney households has been diverted from landfill each week since Auckland Council’s kerbside food scrap collection service was extended to the area almost two months ago.
The total collected for Rodney, which includes Warkworth, Hibiscus Coast, Riverhead, Huapai, Kumeu and Warkworth, for the October 30 to November 26 period was around 85,000kg.
Council says some areas have seen reductions in the weight of total refuse in kerbside rubbish bins by up to 20 per cent.
Wellsford, Matakana, Leigh and other non-urban areas in Rodney have not been included in the programme.
“At this stage, the service will be limited to urban Auckland, largely based upon the rural-urban boundary, as this will provide a cost-effective service for most Aucklanders,” a spokesperson said.
Across Auckland, over the past seven months, nine million kilograms (9000 tonnes) of food scraps have been collected as a result of the rollout of more than 440,000 food scrap bins.
The service is funded by a targeted rate on all Auckland households that have a bin.
The scraps are trucked to a plant in the Waikato where a process called anaerobic digestion technology breaks them down into bio-gas and nutrient liquid fertiliser.
The material travels to the facility in trucks that have delivered gravel from Taupo to Auckland. Rather than return empty, they now carry the scraps, so no extra vehicles are being added to the roads.
Council says that the participation rate of Auckland households is around 45-50 per cent so far.
Council is working through a list of residents yet to receive bins. Multi-unit developments, such as apartments and retirement villages, will be assessed to ascertain whether the service can be delivered, either as normal or as a non-standard service. Property managers or body corporates can register with council for an assessment to design a food scraps service that works for the residents and the property.
The initiative is part of a broader approach to reduce food waste going to landfill. Other elements support the redistribution of food through food rescue initiatives and encourage home and community composting.
