Residents and ratepayers urged to feedback on waste options

Residents and ratepayers of the Queenstown Lakes District are being urged to have their say on waste collection services.

Earlier this year the council sought to introduce a new waste collection service for residual waste (rubbish that isn’t organic or can’t be recycled) in the Annual Plan round. The proposal was a district-wide rate and the introduction of a 120 litre wheelie bin for every household. This was planned to complement the successful introduction of kerbside recycling, district-wide and be implemented ahead of an organic waste (food and small scale garden waste ie leaves and clippings) service, planned in 2010.

“We knew the residual proposal had shortcomings in that it did not reward households that were already practising the ‘zero waste principle’. We also found that it did not best suit holiday home owners,” QLDC utilities committee chairman John Mann said.

Through the Annual Plan submissions and hearing process our community basically said ‘do better’, Mr Mann said. The council undertook to consult further with the community on the options.

“We established a community working party and we took another look at the services. The way forward has been to apportion cost fairly. Put simply, you make residual waste that has to go to the landfill, then you pay the cost,” Mr Mann said.

The campaign had been called ‘operation zero waste’ because ultimately the goal was to work towards minimising waste. The result was the council would embark on a new round of consultation beginning this week.

“We have included organic waste options as well as a set of residual options that we think will help reward good recyclers and offer an option to holiday home owners, as well as provide a good level of service for all residents,” Mr Mann said.

A flyer and feedback form would be widely circulated in the district from today (Wednesday) and sent to all out-of-town ratepayers as a direct mail out this week. The flyer was also available on line at the council’s website www.qldc.govt.nz. Council staff would also embark on a ‘road show’ to engage with community associations and organisations.

“The community has some strong views on this service. I hope people take the time to have a say,” Mr Mann said.

Feedback needed to be with the council by October 24 and from there the outcome would be fed into the Council Community Plan (10-Year Plan) for a final consultation round from March 2009.