Waikato District Council is saying, “Let’s talk rubbish”
And they are after submissions (Last day for submissions is Monday 15th December- Here’s the submission form) on what people want. Many Raglanders are concerned though about the Council’s ideas on rubbish and recycling.
One of the local people who is concerned is Aaron Mooar who says, “Most people should have received a letter from council called ‘Lets Talk Rubbish…”. The whole thing is a bit light on information but their proposal turns out to undermine Raglan’s zero-waste goal a bit so I’ve written up a submission that explains the problems. See below. I’ll paste it below and anyone who’s interested can use it to fill in the form that the council sent out with the letter.Mostly what the council wants to do is good but it’s just their obsession for having one system across the entire district that’s causing the problem .”
Here’s Aaron’s submission
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I support the move to bring a user-pays bag system and increased recycling across the district and congratulate council on this, but am concerned that while it’s a positive move for most of the district it’s actually a backwards step for Raglan.
We’re very proud of our recycling tradition here in Raglan and note that compared to what we have now the new system has the following effects:
1. The proposal represents a subsidy for landfill of $1.30 per 60L bag which is contrary to council’s stated zero waste goal.
2. The subsidy makes it cheaper for local businesses in Raglan to dispose of recycling via rubbish pick up (and they recycle a lot of cardboard).
3. Dumping rubbish at the transfer station will now be more expensive than dumping via street pick-ups – this will encourage people to put trailer loads of waste into numerous prepaid bags on collection day.
4. Pre-paid stickers can be put on any size bag, which means honest ratepayers will be subsidising the people who go looking for the biggest bag they can find.
5. Extra-large bags could also lead to health and safety issues for the pick-up crews.I’m aware that it’s easier to administer a single system across the district but would prefer Raglan to maintain its current pre-paid system until the rest of the district catches up – which I presume it will since WDC’s stated goal is to achieve zero waste. I hope that council can put this goal and the needs of residents ahead of the need for something that is simple to administer.
I’d also like to encourage council to take the food waste trial and implement it Raglan-wide as we’ve been told we’re no longer number one in the country for diversion from landfill rates since Kaikoura started separating food waste from its rubbish.
The Council views is that there’s only so much rubbish communities and the environment can handle and is after submissions saying:
“In line with our Waste Management and Minimisation Plan we’re proposing some changes to our rubbish and recycling services to help us achieve our goal of creating a sustainable community with a zero waste policy.
We’ve surveyed a handful of residents to understand the issues with our current rubbish and recycling services and here’s a snapshot of the feedback
– Everyone said Council should do more to reduce the waste going to landfill.
– People wanted more recycling crates so that’s great, it shows you want to recycle more too.
– Even better most people asked for more places to drop off recycling.
– More people want rubbish in bags than wheelie bins.
Did you know over 2,800 houses receive a weekly rubbish collection but don’t have recycling services and 15,000 properties across the district pay a fixed rate for weekly rubbish collections, either in wheelie bins or bags. So we’ve developed a plan and now we need to talk rubbish with you.
Want to give the Waikato Council your feedback? Here’s the submission form“
The deadline is Monday 15, not 8th. Good to see WDC has now provided a pdf submission form, but why don’t they try to cut their administration costs by providing forms which can be completed on-line?