More money may be spent to assist struggling Central Otago WasteBusters, this time during the busy summer period.
Today the Central Otago District Council will decide whether to spend up to $30,000 to help WasteBusters with glass recycling collections from nine drop-off points.
Any support would be an addition to bail-outs received by the non-profit organisation following a council decision made in September to meet any operational deficit which occurred on a month-to-month basis, in order to keep WasteBusters solvent.
A report by the council's infrastructure services manager, Jon Kingsford, explained council staff had investigated options to manage recycling volumes over the peak period until the end of January, or possibly February.
Transport companies were asked to provide costs to collect glass from the district's recycling drop-off sites, in order to ensure glass at the facilities did not ''end up on the ground''.
Four companies provided costs, which, based on weekly estimates from December 15 until January 31, were about $20,000.
If that collection method was extended until the end of February, it would incur an unbudgeted-for cost of about $30,000.
About $578,000 was available for recycling services in 2014-15, but did not include money for meeting WasteBusters' operational costs monthly, or for glass-handling costs during the peak recycling period.
Any expenditure for the peak glass collection would fall into the waste minimisation investment account which had a current debit balance of $10,740.
Paying a company to do the work would free up a WasteBusters truck and trailer unit, plus crew, which would be able to ensure drop-off sites remained tidy.
Three options were outlined in the report.
The council could do nothing and leave WasteBusters to continue glass collections and ''live with the complaints resulting from glass overflow on the ground''.
Doing so was not supported.
Two other ''supportable'' options included contracting glass collections to a transport company until the end of January, or until the end of February.
The report recommended the collection option until the end of January.
