Christchurch begins roll-out of wheelie bins for city’s new Kerbside Collection
17 September 2008
Christchurch residents will receive the first of their three wheelie bins for the city’s new Kerbside Collection for domestic waste from November.
The new 240-litre recycling bin will be delivered to residents from 10 November to 19 December, with the 140-litre rubbish and 80-litre organics (food and garden waste) bins being delivered from 26 January to 27 March 2009.
"The logistics of delivering 400,000 bins to 133,000 homes throughout Christchurch makes it impractical to deliver all three bins at once," says Council City Water and Waste Manager Mark Christison.
"The Christmas/Summer holidays has also meant the only viable option is to split the bin roll-out."
Akaroa residents, however, will receive all three bins from 12 to 23 January 2009. This will be when many homeowners will be on holiday and in residence.
By delivering the new recycling bin in November/December, he says residents will be able to start using their recycling bin as soon as the new materials recovery plant, being built in Parkhouse Road, is finished late January.
"This way we can immediately start the service and quickly be working towards achieving our goal of a 30 per cent increase in recyclable material collected."
Residents will begin using their new recycling wheelie bin from 2 February. Friday 30 January will be the last day the current recycling crate will be collected.
Mr Christison says from February 2009 recycling will become a fortnightly collection. Residents in week 1 areas will receive the new service from 2 February and residents in week 2 areas from 9 February.
"Whether a property’s kerbside collection is week 1 or week 2 will be clearly identified on the new bins, along with the collection day."
He says residents are reminded not to use the bin until the date shown on the plastic strip sealing the lid of their bin.
"I encourage people to take care with this information. Please don’t throw it away. Take time to read it and understand how the new service operates. And if you have any questions call our Customer Call Centre on 941 8999."
Mr Christison says Council is implementing the new recycling service first because it is also asking residents to change a number of behaviours associated with recycling.
"From February 2009, we no longer want residents to put paper into plastic bags but rather just place the folded papers straight into the bin, and we don’t want plastic bottles and milk cartons to be crushed. Instead, we want these to be thoroughly washed out and the tops put back on bottles."
He says the new state-of-the-art materials recovery plant at Parkhouse Road will sort the recyclables using 3D screening and optical sorting; therefore it is vital the objects on the conveyor belt are whole for accurate sorting.
Residents will begin to receive their new organics and rubbish bins from the end of January, replacing the black rubbish bag, with a staged introduction of the service throughout March 2009.
"By the start of April 2009, all Christchurch residents will be receiving the new three-bin Kerbside Collection; a weekly organics bin collection and alternating fortnightly rubbish and recycling collections."
Mr Christison says each bin will be delivered with information on what items can be placed in that bin.
"It is important residents understand how the new service operates to ensure recycling and organics diverted from landfill can be easily re-used in high-value markets.
"To maximise diversion from landfill and minimise the cost of the service to ratepayers it is important residents follow the instructions provided with the bins. The Council and our contractors are happy to assist anyone who is unclear on the use of the bins."
He says while Council is rolling out a comprehensive education programme for residents on how to use the new three-bin service, those who continually put out contaminated bins could face losing altogether the kerbside collection service for their property.
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