No rubbish user-pays charge
Hamilton councillors have suggested giving a user-pays charge for rubbish and recycling the flick. Mayor Andrew King had flagged a charge of about $5 to put bins out, along with a council spend of $28.5 million over 10 years.
That would have provided for three wheeled bins per household for rubbish, recycling and food waste, and weekly collection. But elected members voted unanimously for Councillor Mark Bunting’s idea to slightly stretch collection times and shift the cost back into general rates.
That will go into council’s draft longterm plan, which will go out for public consultation.
Bunting’s change kept the wheeled bins, but only the food waste one would be emptied weekly.
Rubbish and recycling would be taken away every fortnight.
The cost would be laid out separately on rates bills and council’s estimated spend over the coming decade would be $81.7m. King withdrew his motion and councillors voted 12-0 for Bunting’s option.
Past consultation showed people wanted wheelie bins, Bunting said, but a charge would be a different matter.
‘‘People will resent the system straight away, they will rebel – fly tipping, competition, the works. It ain’t going to be nice,’’ he said.
‘‘One ticket for three bins could be really logistically hard to sort out. If you’re having $5 for all three bins you have three different trucks come along, [they] take away the first one, how are you going to know who’s paid for what?’’
Waste doesn’t rot in landfills, it leaches, he said, and putting it there is getting more and more expensive.
It could open council up to competition from other collectors, he said, which could mean a mess of bins in the street every day. The move is an example of the past and current councils working together on a good idea, Cr Angela O’Leary said.
‘‘It’s decisions like this that have a tangible effect on the daily lives of people in a good way.’’
A fortnightly collection would push people to ‘‘stick the smelly stuff in the food waste’’, Cr Dave Macpherson said.
Cr Siggi Henry said Christchurch has had the bin system for about nine years but hasn’t reduced its waste much.
‘‘I think we should beat them and really get that minimisation done.’’
‘‘One ticket for three bins could be really logistically hard to sort out. If you’re having $5 for all three bins you have three different trucks come along, [they] take away the first one, how are you going to know who’s paid for what?’’
Councillor Mark Bunting