We’ve bin waiting for these

There’s a warehouse in New Plymouth full of thousands of bins, and from next week they’ll be hitting the streets at a rate of 1500-2000 a day.

In total there are about 30,100 bins, and the cost of buying and rolling them out is about $1.6 million.

‘‘It will take us about a month to get them to all the households,’’ New Plymouth District Council resource recovery manager Kimberley Hope said.

It’s a big logistical job and health and safety is a concern with the amount of time spent on the road, Envirowaste branch manager Rick Simeon said.

‘‘There’s a lot that can wrong,’’ he said. ‘‘There’s a lot to be aware of.’’ NPDC voted to move away from plastic rubbish bags as part of the Long-Term Plan and the new bin service will start on September 30.

As well as the existing recycling bins, New Plymouth residents will receive a 140-litre landfill bin and a 23-litre food scraps bin.

The landfill, recycling and glass bins will be collected every fortnight: the glass and landfill bin one week, the recycling bin the next week.

The food bin will be collected weekly, and the scraps will be taken to a composting facility and get resold as compost or fertiliser.

‘‘Food scraps is weekly so that takes the smelly component out of the landfill bin, so it can sit there for two weeks with no issues around odour,’’ Hope said.

Capacity-wise, the bins are slightly more than double the capacity of the 60-litre bags, so no one should get overflows over the fortnight.

The council recently approved the expansion of the bin collection area, meaning several hundred more homes will now be included and charged a targeted rate of $188 a year from next July.

NPDC has a goal of Zero Waste by 2040, but that’s not solely a local government role – the community as a whole need to decide to change their behaviours, Hope said.

‘‘It is something that not just the council but the whole community needs to be involved in to achieve.’’ go