More wheelie bins are likely to be introduced in Central Otago to cater for kerbside recycling across a wider area but the expanded service will come at no extra cost to ratepayers.
In November, the district council announced Central Otago WasteBusters had lost the contract for recycling services in the district.
The organisation, which provided the district's only recycling operation, was on the brink of insolvency and the council agreed to bail it out by meeting any deficits month by month.
As well, the council had given the group a grant of $595,750 in the past financial year.
A review of district recycling services was carried out and the council was developing a new contract for those services.
Council infrastructure services manager Jon Kingsford said details of the new recycling service were still being finalised and he was preparing a report for the first council meeting of the year, next month.
The matter would be discussed in private as there was ''a whole lot of other stuff we need to consider, and it affects people, as well as the commercial aspect of the contract''. Although the service would be restructured, there would be no additional impact on ratepayers, he said.
The ''preferred option'' he would promote to the council involved ratepayers in the council refuse collection area receiving two 240-litre wheelie bins for recycling - one for glass and one for other recyclable material.
Collection of the recycling bins was likely to be carried out at the same time as the fortnightly kerbside refuse collection.
The collection of the contents of the recycling bins would alternate fortnightly.
Mr Kingsford agreed there had been some ''issues'' with kerbside recycling and recycling drop-off services over the peak holiday time, ''despite our best efforts''.
In December, the council agreed to pay an extra $20,000 to WasteBusters to help with the increased recycling volume over the summer holidays, to cover the collection of glass.
Recycling is provided as a kerbside service in Alexandra,Clyde and Cromwell but the new service would also cover other areas within the refuse collection zones, including Fruitlands, Teviot Valley, Bannockburn, Pisa Moorings, Omakau, Ophir, Ranfurly and Naseby.
Mr Kingsford said because of the logistics of developing a new contract, it was likely to be September or later before the new service was operational.
Central Otago Mayor Tony Lepper said with the help of WasteBusters, the council had done a lot of work on convincing people to recycle ''and this has been phenomenally successful, so much so that at times we have been overwhelmed with material''.
A new service would be implemented well before next summer's influx of holiday-makers, he said.
The council continued to ''see a place'' for WasteBusters and would work with that organisation through the transition period to identify the services WasteBusters would continue to provide the community, Mr Lepper said.
