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| February 2003 |
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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. |
