A proposal to introduce a new kerbside bin for green waste and food scraps has received the tick of approval from Queenstown Lakes District councillors. 

More than 54 percent of material going into the red kerbside refuse bins in the district is organic material, with compostable food scraps making up close to 34 percent of an average bin’s contents and another 18 percent being compostable food waste. 

Queenstown Lakes District Council’s (QLDC) waste minimisation team says introducing a new bin for compostable waste and processing would mark a “step change” and help meet both the council’s own goals and targets set by the government.

A local service would “consist of a combined food organics and garden organics collection and the service will be an 80-litre bin collected weekly”, QLDC senior waste minimisation planner Sophie Mander said.

Anyone who is currently eligible for kerbside collections in the district would receive the additional bin, she said.

Because more than half the waste going into the red refuse bins is organic material, collection of the refuse bins would be reduced to fortnightly, Sophie said.

The 80L organics bin is a little over half the size of the 140L red refuse bin as “we’re trying to divert what is going to landfill in this red bin over to this new bin”.

The bins would not be intended to replace green waste composting many residents are already doing at home.

The team’s preferred processing option is to transport material from the bins to an organic waste processing facility currently being developed by Central Otago District Council.

The facility would compost all of the waste “to be used commercially and domestically”, Sophie said.

The business case for kerbside organics was generally well received by councillors at yesterday’s (Thursday February 15) full council meeting, who approved it for consultation.

However, councillors did raise questions about whether or not the land recently purchased for a materials recovery facility on Ballantyne Road would be a more suitable site for processing; whether a biweekly refuse bin collection would be too infrequent; whether transporting the material to Central Otago was an environmentally friendly choice; and about the timeframe for implementation, which could be as late as 2026 or 2027 if the Central Otago facility is selected as the processing site.

Members of the public will get the chance to share their thoughts on the kerbside organics collection service as part of upcoming community consultation on the Long Term Plan.

PHOTO: Supplied