Council backs call for e-bike to collect waste

Community Compost organiser Ben Bushell is thrilled with the Nelson City Council’s support in getting the group an ebike for food-waste collection.

The volunteer-run composting scheme is about 21⁄2 years old, and has grown from just one person collecting the waste of one household, to composting about 500 kilograms of food waste per week from 49 households and 20 businesses.

The only paid employees are the two drivers who divide six hours of work per week collecting the waste, with 10 to 20 volunteers, including Bushell, doing all the rest.

Under the current system, the collectors drive a van from business to business collecting waste, before taking it all to be composted in Lower Moutere.

Bushell asked the council for support in getting the volunteer group an ebike for its inner-city collection scheme.

‘‘It’s very slow going [in the van], and it’s part of a greater vision of all being either e-vehicle or bicycle-driven collection everywhere, but the CBD is very dense and flat, so it makes a lot of sense to go by bike,’’ he said.

He said he was ‘‘very excited’’ at the council’s support.

Chair of the council’s environment committee, councillor Kate Fulton, said the volunteer group had done ‘‘outstanding’’ work and she was happy to help Bushell where possible.

‘‘He’s presented to council before, and we’ve not been able to support him with funding, so when this came before us, I just thought it was really important that we show that we support our community organisers . . . and support Community Compost with this initiative.’’

Nelson City mayor Rachel Reese said during Thursday’s council meeting that food waste had been an issue that was ‘‘top of mind’’ for some councillors for a long time.

‘‘We think it’s worth supporting the request.’’

She said the council’s preference would be to own the bike and have it branded with council logos but loaned to the Community Compost group. The purchase needs to be brought to the council again to get full approval, but the initial response from councillors was positive.

Anyone interested in joining the volunteers or having their food waste collected can find out more at communitycompost.co.nz.