Four years after public consultation showed huge support for adding food scraps and garden waste bins to DCC kerbside recycling and rubbish collection, and replacing rubbish bags with bins, the first contents of the new bins will be picked up from kerbside routes on 1 July.
Over 52,000 households on kerbside collection routes have been provided with a new green-lidded bin for food scraps and garden waste and a new red-lidded bin for rubbish, the latter replacing prepaid DCC black plastic rubbish bags. The delivered bins contained “Ōtepoti Dunedin’s kerbside recycling and rubbish guide” and a kitchen benchtop bin for gathering food scraps.
Collection of the existing, yellow-lidded bins for mixed recycling and blue bins for glass recycling on alternating weeks will continue as usual. Green-lidded bins are collected weekly, and red-lidded rubbish bins are collected fortnightly, on the same day as the blue bin. Collection days stay the same.
“By using the new bins correctly, people can make sure hundreds of tonnes of food and garden waste is diverted from landfill each week, composting it for reuse instead. This in turn will decrease landfill methane production, which should ultimately lower our landfill ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) charges over time,” says DCC Infrastructure Services Committee Chair, Councillor Jim O’Malley.
Organic material buried in a landfill decomposes anaerobically, emitting the strong greenhouse gas, methane. Before now, around 140 tonnes of food waste was collected in DCC rubbish bags and, along with 66 tonnes of green waste, disposed of at Green Island Landfill each week.
General Manager Climate and City Growth Scott MacLean, says, “To achieve maximum waste reduction, we all need to sort our recycling correctly.
“We have provided, and will continue to provide plenty of helpful material about how to use the new bins and the two bins residents on kerbside collection routes already had. We'll continue to focus on public education so that cutting down waste at home is in everyone’s power.
“We’ve also launched an updated “Dunedin Kerbside Collection” app, that includes collection day notifications and information about sorting recycling and rubbish into all four bins, plus a few new services.
“We’ve made the effort to translate written and video information into several languages including New Zealand sign language and made them available online.”
The targeted rate cost for the first year of the full, four bin kerbside recycling and rubbish collection service will be $301.50.
Making this change brings Dunedin into line with central government’s incoming Aotearoa NZ Waste Strategy regulations that food scraps collection services must be made available to properties in all urban areas by 2030.
Mr MacLean says, “Delivery of bins to over 52,000 Dunedin households on kerbside collection routes ran from the end of March under the supervision of our kerbside collection partner, Enviro NZ. The project team are to be congratulated, as this was a huge and complex task.
“Bin delivery went remarkably smoothly, marrying accurate data with efficient delivery systems, plus a fortunate run of relatively calm weather.
“As we said with the bin delivery, there may be some hiccups along the way as we bed in the new collection service. So, we thank residents in advance for their patience while we work to address any setbacks or hold-ups as quickly as possible.