Hearing to air thoughts on rubbish
Proposed changes to New Plymouth’s rubbish collection would add an extra $84 to the annual rates bill.
The New Plymouth District Council will meet on Thursday to hear submissions on proposed changed to its kerbside rubbish collection.
The council’s preference is to have a green and food waste 120 litre bin that will be collected fortnightly at a cost of $73.89 per annum per ratepayer and to replace the red rubbish bags with 120L bins that would also be collected every two weeks.
The new wheelie bins add $10.09 to the rates bill giving a total of $83.98.
That’s not counting a $15 off one charge for the bins, a report to the council said.
Any changes would have to be approved during the long term plan process, so would not come into force until at least July 2019. Another option is to wait until the contract for collecting the rubbish is renewed in 2023.
NPDC received 730 submissions on its draft waste management and minimisation plan, which were added to the 376 submissions that came in at the time waste was one of the council’s top 10 focus points.
There was strong support for the council to provide an organic waste collection, but the proposed service, was not supported by all submitters, the report said.
Some people were concerned with the two week time frame, as it could encourage vermin and the rubbish would smell bad in the summer. A weekly collection would be preferred by many people.
More than half of the submitters - 54 per cent - were willing to pay up to $2 per week, $104 per year, extra for zero waste, while 31 per cent of submitters did not want to pay more in their rates.
Many submitters supported the council aiming for zero waste, but some questioned whether it was really achievable, others wondered what it really meant.