For the first time in 24 years, some suburbs in Tauranga will have a new kerbside rubbish and recycling collection day.

Starting on Monday February 5, collection days in Maungatapu, Tauranga Central (north of 11th Ave) and Sandhurst Road (including streets off it to the north-west) will move to Mondays.

Greerton (including Poike and Hairini north of SH29) will move to Wednesdays starting from February 7 and Bethlehem (north of SH2) will move to Fridays starting February 9.

All affected residents will be notified of the upcoming changes by their private collection service provider and detailed collection area information is also available on the Tauranga City Council website.

Tauranga City Council's Acting Manager for Resource Recovery and Waste, Cathy Davidson, says the changes were a result of requests from private collection companies, who were struggling to service all households in the allocated collection days due to urban growth.

'Although Council does not manage the kerbside collection services, we do facilitate which days collectors can operate in each area.

"To enable collectors to service all Tauranga households between the ideal times of 7.30am and 5.30pm on week days, we've changed some areas' collection days.”

Tauranga has seen substantial urban growth in recent years, particularly in suburbs such as Papamoa and The Lakes.

When collection days were last allocated in 1994, Papamoa had only 2400 households to service; today there are around 11,600.

The Lakes suburb didn't exist in 1994 but will soon have more than 2000 households that require kerbside rubbish and recycling services.

Cathy says a lot of work had been done with waste contractors to redesign collection areas so each area had a more even balance of household numbers and also allowed for future suburban growth.

'We're happy that the agreed new collection areas minimise the number of households affected by collection day changes whilst ensuring that collectors can achieve their rounds efficiently and economically.”

For further information visit: www.tauranga.govt.nz/kerbside-collection-days