Organic waste and a fortnightly rubbish collection were hot topics at a meeting of the Central Otago District Council infrastructure committee yesterday.
The meeting was held to discuss and amend the draft Waste Minimisation and Management Plan before it is put to the council in February.
Of the 207 written submissions made on the draft plan, 187 discussed the proposal to reduce collecting rubbish from 240-litre wheelie bins from weekly to fortnightly.
A slight majority supported this but many submissions indicated a concern for public health and offensive odours arising from waste, nappies and foodscraps in particular, especially at the height of summer.
The committee discussed options such as fortnightly collection during winter.
Six of the 10 committee members voted to keep the fortnightly collection proposal. It was thought fewer collections would encourage people to recycle and compost more.
Council waste minimisation officer Sophie Mander said there were odour control options such as placing nappies in a plastic bag.
The committee agreed the council would not offer an option to opt out of the collection scheme, as it was thought of holiday home owners would choose that option and make it difficult to fund collections in smaller towns such as Naseby.
The option of the current size or smaller wheelie bins would remain and would be reflected in rates, as would the reduction in collections.
The committee also agreed to analyse the need for council rubbish collections in areas such as Bannockburn and Pisa Moorings.
Organic waste collection or facilities was another popular issue raised by submitters, with some wanting kerbside collections and others calling for centralised composting facilities.
The committee agreed to provide a three-yearly collection of hazardous materials and to increase the number of recycling drop-off facilities in outlying towns.
