The city and district councils' joint governance committee are looking at a new improved rubbish collection regime that will increase recycling and reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill.

The review of rubbish collection is a six yearly legal requirement. The draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan's timetable is to be adopted by the councils' Joint governance Committee next month, before going for public consultation in June.

This will then be followed by deliberations in July.

The law the Waste Minimisation Act of 2008 requires the councils to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill and to recycle more.

But the assessment shows the councils haven't achieved targets set in the previous WMMP in 2010.

The Targets: 40 per cent of the waste stream processed through council-owned or associated facilities is diverted as resources by 2015 (in 2009/10 this was 22 per cent); reduction of 20kg in per capita/annum of waste to landfill by 2015 from the 2010 baseline of 477 kg/capita/annum; reduce organic waste to landfill through Council facilities by 20 per cent in 2015 from 2010 figures.

There has been little positive change in these three measures since the 2010 plan. Figures for landfill show 77,317 tonnes taken to land fill in 2010 and 87,909 tonnes in 2015.

The only year the amount decreased was the 2012/13 year when it dropped to 76,228 tonnes.

Eunomia Research and Consulting says the previous plan didn't work because; the 2010 plan's intended outcomes and targets were not adequately supported by the proposed actions, and that the actions in the plan have not enabled council to deliver on the stated outcomes.

To be meaningful, targets and outcomes need to derive directly from specific actions that will be able to deliver measurable results.

More than 50 per cent of the waste currently disposed of at Class 1 landfills could in theory be diverted from landfill disposal.

This is mainly kitchen/food waste, which represents 14.4 per cent of the total. The second largest divertible component is recyclable paper, which comprises 11.2 per cent of total rubbish.

In 2014/15, approximately 0.524 tonnes of levied waste was disposed of at Class 1 landfills for each person in Tauranga and Western Bay. Of this total, 0.201 tonnes was domestic kerbside refuse.

The per capita disposal rate for Tauranga and Western Bay is mid-way between the high and low disposal rates nationally, and is identical to the disposal rate in Christchurch.

An average of 76 kg/capita/annum of materials are recycled through domestic kerbside collections and drop-off facilities in Tauranga and Western Bay.

By 2026 the sub-region will be sending about 100,000 tonnes of material to landfill, a further 60,000 to cleanfill, while green waste grows to about 10,000 tonnes, other organics to 7,000 tonnes, recyclables to 28,000 tonnes and scrap metal to 18,500 tonnes.

Together, Tauranga and Western Bay have a population of just over 160,000. Of these, just over 117,000 live in Tauranga, with another 12,400 living in Te Puke, Katikati or Waihi Beach. A large part of Western Bay is relatively sparsely populated.

By 2031, the region will become home to over 216,000 people, an increase of 35 per cent in population and 40 per cent in the number of households.

Councillors are facing choosing from a selection of waste collection and recycling services that will achieve the set targets while the population is growing.

Wheelie bins, rubbish bags, whether collections are ratepayer funded or contracted and which mixes are more efficient and cost least are detailed in a list of scenarios in the 147 page report.

Councils' roles are expected to be wide ranging, from monitoring and measuring the rubbish flows to paying for waste management activities in a way that promotes recycling and minimises the cost to the ratepayer.

The landfill at Tirohia is 84.7km from Tauranga and every tonne of rubbish is levied by the land fill operators. The Tirohia landfill has consent for about four million metric tonnes of rubbish, a capacity expected to be reached in 2035.

The council is also expected to have to work more with community groups, the private sector and other local authorities to achieve waste minimisation goals in preference to developing new Council funded activities or assets.

In October 2015 WasteMINZ, the Glass Packaging Forum, and councils around New Zealand agreed on a standardised set of colours for mobile recycling and rubbish bins, crates and internal office bins. Companies wishing to implement nationwide recycling schemes are strongly encouraged to use these colours both for their bins and also on their signage. This will ensure that the colours used are consistent with both public place recycling and household recycling. The recommended colours are:

For bin bodies:

For 240 litre and 120 litre wheeled bins, black or dark green should be used. These colours maximise the amount of recycled content used in the production of the bins.

For bin lids, crates and internal office bins:

> Red should be used for rubbish

> Yellow should be used for commingled recycling (glass, plastic, metal and paper combined)

> Lime green should be used for food waste and food waste/garden (referring to green) waste combined; noting that food waste-only collections are strongly encouraged to use a smaller bin size than combined food and garden collections.

> Dark Green should be used for garden waste.

> Light Blue should be used for commingled glass collections (white, brown, green glass combined).

> Grey should be used for paper and cardboard recycling.