Council considers binning rubbish bags
Plastic rubbish and recycling bags may join supermarket bags in being binned.
Wellington City Council produces about 3.1 million bags each year but the Government plan to ban bags has motivated it to do something about it.
Council waste operations manager Emily Taylor-Hall said there were compostable bags or other options. ‘‘We’re looking at alternatives . . . We’d obviously like to see if we could convert any of our recycling bag users to wheelie bins, and we’d like to look at other alternative bag models,’’ Taylor-Hall said.
About 65 per cent of suburban households have a recycling wheelie bin, the rest used plastic bags. The council’s contract for the yellow rubbish bags ends in November 2019, and the green recycling bags contract would end in August 2019 as a minimum, or August 2020.
Combined, Wellington’s rubbish and recycling bags totalled about 3.1 million each year. The average supermarket would produce about 1.9 bags each year.
Councillor Iona Pannett said people putting recycling in plastic bags had noticed the irony. ‘‘We know it’s not a great look for us to be doing this.’’
It would be great if residents had a compostable bag, Pannett said. A clip to keep wheelie bins closed was in the planning stages and would mean more residents could have them.
‘‘The other thing is we need a smaller rubbish bag because that sends a message about how much you should be throwing out.’’
It would be possible to remove plastic recycling and rubbish bags from the process, she said. million plastic
Packaging New Zealand executive director Sharon Humphreys said there needed to be a nationwide project to reduce plastic. ‘‘We actually need a plan for all our waste management systems in New Zealand.’’
Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage said council bags typically went to landfill. ‘‘It’s up to councils to decide how they organise rubbish.’’
LGNZ president Dave Cull said a working group had been established within the Ministry for the Environment with council representatives. They would identify good practice and provide clear guidance and specifications. Stuff