Solid waste audit shows room for improvement

Solid waste audits show 94 per cent of Waipā residents are doing a great job with their recycling. However, the six per cent that aren’t complying are costing ratepayers up to $30,000 in disposal fees per month.

The solid waste or bin audits, completed in the last three months, are one way of educating the Waipā community around what they can and can’t put in their bins.

Waste minimisation team leader Sarabjeet Singh said that there has been an improvement in the way we have been recycling.

“Some residents are doing a fantastic job at recycling, but there are still offenders that continue to cost our compliant ratepayers money.”

“We’re seeing everything from bags full of rubbish to used medical products, needles, dog poo, dirty nappies, we’ve even had a dead fish come through the sorting line. Other contamination such as car motor oil and other liquids have forced the closure of the production line for major clean-ups.

“It’s really important to only put items that can be recycled in your wheelie bins to avoid the unnecessary and costly disposal fees,” Singh said.

Costs to deal with contaminated recycling include transporting the material to landfill, disposing of it and the loss of revenue from otherwise good product which could have been sold on the recycling market.

“Contaminated bins are stickered in the first instance and not collected. On the next collection, our drivers will check them again and if contamination is found, the property owners will be notified and their bin won’t be emptied,” he said.

“After a third offence, the property owners will receive a letter from Council and service may be suspended to that property. Households with extreme contamination could face having their service removed permanently.”

More information on recycling in Waipā can be found at www.waipadc.govt.nz/recycling.