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Council has delivered 34,000 wheelie bins; now it’s sending 26,000 re-cycling bags
Press Release – Wellington City Council
Around 34,000 households in Wellington City have received the new 140-litre recycling wheelie bins. The delivery of around 26,000 recycling bags to city households, most assessed as unsuitable for a bin, is scheduled to start from Monday.
Wellington City Council’s Infrastructure Director, Stavros Michael, says if households haven’t yet received a bin it is likely that they will receive an initial supply of 26 recycling bags instead due to terrain or access problems.
Mr Michael says, however, that some properties are still being assessed more closely for suitability.
Those households receiving recycling bags will be entitled to a total of 52 free bags a year – two bags are equivalent to one full recycling bin. There will be a small charge for bags in excess of the free yearly allocation.
The new kerbside recycling collection service will begin from 16 May and Mr Michael says it is important people do not put their wheelie bin or recycling bags out before this date.
“We’ve had a few cases with people putting their recycling bins out already and while this does show that people are really keen to start with the new collection service, it is premature.”
Mr Michael says there will be some trial and error with introducing the new system and does not expect it to be perfect on day one.
“We will continuously review the allocation of the bins and bags while the service is settling in over the next six months. We anticipate making some corrections.”
People’s recycling collection day will remain the same – however the wheelie bins and bags will be collected on alternate weeks to the green recycling crates – which will now be used only for glass Recycling will only be collected from approved Council containers.
“People should refer to the calendar they receive with their bin or bags to see which recycling to put out each week. We have split the city into two collection calendars – half the city will start with the glass crate collection and the other half will start with the wheelie bin and bag collection.”
Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
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“Recycling will only be collected from approved Council containers.” Well that’s a change. Someone had better tell the city council. My green “crate’ was destroyed by local children years ago, and WCC declined to replace it. I was told I didn’t need it, and I could put my recycling out in anything.
I contacted the council recently to check on this, and was told it would still be alright.
Oh well..I can always break any glass and put it in the rubbish instead.
The true meaning of recycling has been lost over time; it used to be much simpler and kept glass away from our landfills for the most part because a deposit paid on each bottle saw them returned to the original owner to be re-filled time and time again. The Clubrooms at Wakefield Park in Island Bay were partly built with money raised from bottle drives.
Upgrading receptacles could see in-store recycling become a reality and NZ import less plastic. Recycling at the manufacturers’ level also means you will have less in your recycling bins, saving landfills and ratepayers millions of dollars annually nationwide.
The new WCC wheelie bins have been a real success for me already! As I left my home a week or so ago I saw the street lined with the new bins that had just been delivered. Mine was at my front entrance. When I returned 2 hours later IT WAS GONE, so I have none. The WCC said that each bin has a code number so suggested I should start walking around the streets trying to read all the numbers of the bins that are out during recycling pick-up time. What chance a neighbour would have ‘nicked’ my bin and then put it out for all to see? No, it is more likely it was someone with a van or ‘Ute’ on their way to a place far off from the site of the theft.
In Adelaide, glass bottles [beer, wine etc] are worth 10c each delivered to a recycling depot.
In Los Angeles, aluminum cans go into a crusher located outside local supermarkets, and the machine spits out 5c for each can crushed.
In Frankfurt, every convenience store must have a recycling bin for used bottles, cans, juice and food cartons.
In each city I’ve personally returned my beer bottles, crushed my cans, and recycled my juice cartons.
If Wellington is such a ‘world leader’ in sustainability, why is it so far behind Adelaide, Los Angeles and Frankfurt?
I live in Tawa. Our rubbish day is on a Monday. My husband put our lovely new wheelie bin out bright and early on Monday morning along with all the neighbours. It is now Wednesday and our wheelie bins are still sitting by our letterbox waiting to be emptied!
The next street over from us, and the street down from us have had their bins emptied.
How long are we going to be waiting for our bins to be emptied I have to ask myself.
Two afternoons in a row I have rung WCC to be told that ‘ the bins will be emptied later on tonight’! Joke! It is now 10 to 5 and I can’t hear the trucks arriving in a hurry and doubt very much that they will do – unless it is next Monday!!.
Hi Jean – though I am not one of your local councillors, can you tell me (off line is fine) which street so I can get onto the officers to get that sorted. That is clearly not acceptable service.
Kind regards
Cr Andy Foster
Yay! Councillor Foster – I like that he’s willing to help Jean’s plight and “lift the game”, that the WCC promised.