A scheme to stop funding the city’s rubbish collection from rates next year has been thrown out by the Christchurch City Council, but councillors have asked for reports about the best way to deal with a spending bubble expected to push the rates increase above 6 per cent in the 2004/05 year.

The current landfill, at Burwood, is nearing the end of its useful life. The Council is one of several in the region supporting the development of a modern environmentally sound landfill in North Canterbury, but its introduction will mean a significant rise in the cost of disposing of rubbish.

As well, the Council is committed to a plan to cut the amount of rubbish the city produces. The Sustainable Transport and Utilities Committee (STU), in floating the idea of asking Christchurch residents to pay for their rubbish bags, said putting a real cost on each black rubbish bag was the only sure way to encourage households to recycle as much material as they can and cut down the amount being sent to landfill.

Recycling efforts over the past few years have cut the amount of rubbish the city generates (see graph).

But as the research presented in the table shows, the average bag of household rubbish still contains much that need not end up in a landfill. It suggests that most of what is in an average bag does not need to be dumped. Kitchen and garden waste, paper, metal, glass and many plastics are all able to be recycled or composted.

Last month’s Council meeting to consider the draft of its 2003 Annual Plan decided not to go ahead with the waster-pays scheme.

Instead councillors voted to ask staff to find savings so the forecast rates increases can be trimmed. They also asked the STU Committee to keep up its efforts to cut the amount of rubbish going to landfill and to investigate and recommend a preferred method for collecting household rubbish.