Organic Waste Recycling

Let the Council do the dirty work? Organic waste recycling

At the WCC Environment and Infrastructure Committee meeting on 7 August, the WCC voted to proceed with the city-wide organic waste collection scheme. This means the council will need to buy tens of thousands of plastic bins to hand out to households, acquire a new collection fleet and equipment. Once acquired, the council will be locked into the chosen collection configuration for at least a decade. Furthermore, the yet-to-be-built processing facility will likely be somewhere in the Horowhenua, so our waste will leave quite a carbon footprint.

This is only part of the zero waste program, which will be charged to the ratepayers as an additional WMA Levy. Tony Randle - WCC Councillor Takapū/Northern says the cost to ratepayers is an additional $22.5 million per year.

Practically speaking, do we really want to keep our kitchen waste in a bin for a week or two? Doesn’t sound very hygienic to me. Just think of the mould and the fermented juices….  And the rodents will have a field day whenever the bins get toppled over, as they do in the wind.

Financially speaking, is committing the city to such a high annual operational cost the right thing to do for the next ten years?

I would rather keep on doing my own composting and have the millions spent on fixing potholes and water pipes instead.

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