Re-start with return of food scrap collections

Western Bay of Plenty Council

Western Bay of Plenty Council's mission to reduce waste to landfill is back at full capacity as green lid food scraps bins return to kerbside collections.

From Monday May 9 all eligible households can place their Western Bay of Plenty District Council official food scraps bins back on the kerbside each week.

Council's Deputy CEO and Group Manager Infrastructure Services Gary Allis says he's excited to have our full services up and running again and sees it as a chance to reset.

'Let's all use this re-start as an opportunity to reinvigorate our habits and make good use of all waste minimisation options on offer. If you have not used the service yet, or are sceptical about the benefits of the service for the environment – now is the time to give it a go.

'Reusing food scraps is a key part of our strategy to reduce waste. By not sending food scraps to landfill we reduce emissions and reuse precious nutrients as food scrap bin contents go on to become compost that grows more fruit and vegetables – it's a win-win.”

However, Council's random bin audits from February 2022, before recent Covid interruptions to our service delivery, showed there is still a lot of food scraps going into the red lid rubbish bin destined for landfill. Our goal now is for people to resume their great food scrap recycling habits and improve on our pre-Covid diversion rates.

Gary says, 'We know the recent Covid related service interruptions have meant some food scraps ended up in the landfill, but we're hopeful that some residents were able to freeze or safely store their food scraps for our first collections.

'Soon we'll be running at full capacity again and we hope everyone will get on board with food scraps. We know there's a lot of information out there, so we've refined a few tips for anyone who's not sure about how to make the best use of their food scraps bin.”

Tips and tricks for food scraps bins

Food scraps collections take place weekly and can be lined with brown paper or newspaper, to help keep the bin clean and odour free.

Plastic lining, even if it is biodegradable or compostable, can't be collected as the varying plastics can contaminate the compost at the composting facility. It's also important to keep your food scraps bin in a cool place outside, where its less likely to attract flies.

Things you can put in your food scraps bin:

Fruit and vegetable stalks, peels and cores
Meat, fish, bones and cooled fat
Egg shells and seafood shells
Coffee grounds and tea leaves
Indoor cut flowers and bouquets – ribbons and wire removed
Kitchen paper towels

Things that should go in the red lid rubbish bin:

Cigarette butts
Fruit stickers
Tea bags
Liquids
Animal waste and pet sand
Grass clippings or green waste
Plastic or compostable bags or bin liners
Cling film, food wrapping, waxed paper or aluminium foil
Compostable packaging – paper coffee cups or lids

Food scraps collections are only available to people who receive a ‘full service'.

Check our collection day finder to see if you qualify for food scraps collections kerbsidecollective.co.nz/collection-day

Can't remember when to put your bins out? Download the Antenno app and we'll send you a reminder each week westernbay.govt.nz/antenno

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4 comments

Yeah nah

Posted on 03-05-2022 15:37 | By Kancho

Forget it


Pick up everyone's scraps

Posted on 03-05-2022 19:51 | By Get our roads

Why do we miss out on the full service, we were here before all the new houses out Omokoroa, Minden, Pahoia, etc etc, what are we supposed to do with our scraps, if we have a compost bin it just attracts rats, mice and the now forever presence of Pukeko that your wonderful housing and roading Managers have removed from their habitat because you want to overpopulate our beautiful countryside with ugly houses with no yards and roads for the rich to cart their spoilt brats to school every day or worse, those brats have their own cars to go to college on. Your food to landfill wont work with us, we will keep throwing our food in red bin until you give us the service we deserve considering we have been paying rates way before those newbys settled here, equality NOT.


don't use anyway

Posted on 04-05-2022 07:49 | By jed

Is that tiny little bin a sick joke by the council?


I like the green food bin.

Posted on 04-05-2022 12:55 | By morepork

It's a pretty color and I love being able to scrape the plates SOMEWHERE that might do some good... In fact, I consider the whole rubbish collection fiasco a fun game. I check WHICH bins are going out and WHEN and I enjoy trogging them to the kerbside and ensuring the correct spacing is in place and they are facing the right way. It takes my mind off the trivial problems of life in Tauranga, like the cost of living and the destruction of Democracy. Considering what the implementation of 10Bs refuse collection system has cost us (and we will never be told) we should get SOME fun out of it...


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