I was disgusted that TCC councillors voted to institute a one-size-fits-all rubbish and recycling system (page 3, The Weekend Sun, June 8). Rather than '… minimising the rubbish trucked from Tauranga to the Waikato landfill …”, the effects of this policy are more likely to include an increase of $5 per week for families renting houses in Tauranga, the active discouragement of the ‘refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle' ethic, taught by schools and environmental organisations, the encouragement of people to generate more rubbish, discouragement of those who currently compost organic materials, and increased debt due to the capital needed for the supply of the new bins.

I doubt that the 'staff and consultants…” who are reported to have '… developed a detailed model of the implications of such a service …” have included the above effects in their model.

Councillors have unfortunately ignored the opportunity to develop Tauranga as a zero-waste eco-city, a model for other New Zealand cities to follow, despite some having professed environmental ethics in the past, instead making it an even more unaffordable city.

I would have expected better of councillors, although, based on previous decisions, perhaps that was a vain hope.

A Willoughby, Welcome Bay.