Council Encourages Home Composting and Greenwaste Saturday Mulching at Oamaru Landfill

Waitaki District Council is working on two initiatives to make it easier and cheaper for people to dispose of garden waste : promoting home composting and initiating the ‘Greenwaste Saturday” program from October 24, 2009.

 

Council will encourage home composting by funding up to $20,000 towards the cost of home compost bins and an ‘effective composting’ community education program. Council staff are now investigating the best way to maximize home composting within the $20,000 budget. Council will release final details in November.

 

The benefits of home composting are many. Composting green waste at home reduces travel costs, disposal fees, greenhouse gas emissions and Council’s processing costs. It encourages individual responsibility by dealing with waste at the source.

 

In addition to reducing the amount of waste going to landfill, home composting

· encourages people to grow their own food and thus promotes healthy eating

· aligns with the ‘push play for 30 minutes a day’ message and helps the fight against obesity and diabetes

· promotes healthier lifestyles associated with gardening

· reduces packaging waste

 

Council will make disposal of ‘bulky’ green waste easier by starting “Green Waste Saturdays” at the Oamaru Landfill every Saturday afternoon. The Landfill will charge by weight ($50 per MT) rather than volume. And Council will admit all vehicles on Saturday afternoon – not just double axle trailers or vehicles over 2MT.

Council will mulch the garden waste and use it to grow grass on the final landfill ‘cap’. The garden waste will not go into the landfill.

 

Most district waste disposal facilities, including the Chelmer Street Resource Recovery Park, do not have a weighbridge. Disposal costs are calculated by volume, not weight. So the cost of disposing of ‘high volume-low weight’ bulky branches and prunings can be very expensive. By charging on weight – not volume – at the Landfill, Council will reduce disposal costs on some ‘bulky’ kinds of garden waste.

 

In order to minimize staffing costs, Council will close the landfill area on Saturdays at midday and open the green waste area from 1.00 to 4.00pm. Greenwaste Saturday afternoons start on 24 October 2009.