Flexible recycling in pipeline

Bond St apartment-dweller Prof Sue Dovey is among those happy to hear the Dunedin City Council is...
Bond St apartment-dweller Prof Sue Dovey is among those happy to hear the Dunedin City Council is considering a new inner-city recycling service. Photo by Gregor Richardson.

Fresh plans for an inner-city recycling service in Dunedin have been welcomed by apartment dwellers in the city's warehouse precinct.

However, the Dunedin City Council - which is surveying residents and businesses about the idea - says it was already clear any new system would have to be flexible to cater for a variety of needs.

''We're certainly not going to take the urban recycling system and plonk it in town, because it's never going to work that way,'' council waste strategy officer Catherine Irvine said.

Ms Irvine has begun surveying residents and businesses across the central city, warehouse district and South Dunedin retail area, to gauge their support for the initiative.

She told the Otago Daily Times it was hoped feedback would help shape options for the new service, which would then be presented to the council on November 25.

Public consultation would follow as part of next year's budget hearings, and it was hoped a new service could be up and running in 2015-16, she said.

The idea was welcomed by Bond St apartment-dweller Prof Sue Dovey, of the University of Otago, who said any new service should be centred around a drop-off collection facility for rubbish and recycling.

A kerbside collection service would mean recycling bins lining the streets all day, at the mercy of the wind and seagulls, which already made a mess on black bag rubbish collection days, she said.

''When I moved in, nearly three years ago now, there were huge issues with a lot of mess on the footpaths and broken bottles in all the gutters and all sorts of revolting stuff.''

The council's move to install additional small rubbish and recycling bins on the streets had helped improve the tidiness of the area in recent years, but a drop-off facility would add to that, she said.

''If there was a rubbish and recycling centre that everyone in the neighbourhood knew was there, as well as those small bins, potentially that's a better way of managing this.''

Angus Mackay, of Kew, who still owned a warehouse precinct apartment on Crawford St, said there was ''clearly'' demand for a new service.

He featured in the ODT last year, arguing for a new service by explaining how he relied on small public bins on the street to do his recycling.

He welcomed the council's initiative yesterday, saying many residents were likely to be dumping all their recycling in rubbish bags destined for the Green Island landfill.

''If you're at all lazy and can't be bothered taking your recycling somewhere where there are bins, the majority of people will just dump all their stuff out with the rubbish.''

He also liked the idea of a communal collection centre somewhere in the warehouse precinct, saying demand for it would only grow over time.

''The whole place is on the up and it's going to be a growing requirement. There's a lot of scaffolding been up and more apartments developed. The need is growing, so it's not something that's going to go away.''

Ms Irvine said the central business district and South Dunedin shopping centre were already covered by a nightly rubbish collection service and twice-weekly cardboard collection service.

She could not yet say exactly what new recycling options would be considered, or what a service might cost.

A blanket kerbside collection service across the inner city was ''obviously'' not an option, but a communal drop-off site for the warehouse precinct would be considered.

Initial feedback also suggested the service would need to be ''flexible'' to cope with the variety of waste and recycling streams generated by different business types clustering in different parts of the city.

Hospitality generated a lot of glass and food waste, offices generated paper and retailers produced more plastic.

The aim was to broaden the range of recyclable materials collected, to include glass, plastics, aluminium cans, steel tins and paper.

Council drop-in sessions to discuss options would be held at Taste Nature on September 23, and at the Dunedin City Library on September 23 and 25.

chris.morris@odt.co.nz

 

 


Inner-city options

 

• Dunedin City Council surveying inner-city residents, business and property owners about demand for a new recycling service.

• Options, costs yet to be detailed, but ''flexible'' system required; blanket kerbside collection ruled out.

• Options to be presented to council on November 25.

• Public consultation to follow as part of next year's budget hearings.

• New system expected to launch during 2015-16.


 

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