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Christchurch City Scene
February 2003

Lead Stories

Voting poll on the way

Lots of wins when we work together

Pipeline update

Go easy on water

 

Back to the February Index

Sort it out


Sort it out

Cutting the amount of organic material being put in household rubbish bags — everything from apple cores and potato peelings to hedge clippings and fallen leaves — would make a great cut in the city’s waste stream, would help the environment and could save you money.

Over the next few months, householders will be getting from the City Council a pamphlet called Get Waste Wise — Think Before You Throw. It has information about what we all might do to cut down the amount of waste being sent to the landfill and prepare for a policy change to residents paying for their rubbish bags rather than having them provided from rates.

This aspect of waste management planning is open for public input until the end of May and the Council is keen to hear from people about its plans. A detailed description is available on the web, under “waster pays” at www.ccc.govt.nz/HaveYourSay/

Council Resource Analyst Tony Moore says finding ways of diverting organics from ending up in landfills is a top Council priority. There are several good reasons for this.

It takes up a lot of space in the landfill (about a third) and as it rots it gives off methane, which is a greenhouse gas, and produces a potentially harmful liquid that must be safely managed.

“Getting rid of it would be the best thing the city can do to reduce its waste,” Mr Moore says. “And this material is a potential resource. You can either use it at home to make compost or let someone else do it. Under a paid-bag system, people will be saving money if they find ways to keep this and other recyclable material out of their black bags.”

The Council has information available about home composting and runs an education campaign about it through schools and tours. It already makes compost from greenwaste taken to its transfer stations and is also planning to buy equipment which can compost the city’s kitchen waste. It hopes to have that working within two years.

Mr Moore says the paid bags plan is crucial to future developments in this area because it would provide the funding needed to improve household collection services.

If the Council chooses to run with a waster pays system, the last mail-out of refuse bag coupons under the current rates-funded scheme will be in April 2003. People would begin buying bags when their 2003 allocation runs out.

  • More information about current and future waste policies is available on the Council website, at www.ccc.govt.nz/waste
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