Talking rubbish brings good news and bad news for Central Otago ratepayers.
In its final meeting of the year earlier this week, the Central Otago District Council revisited the thorny topic of rubbish collection.
Councillors were told the savings since the change to fortnightly rubbish collection in the district had been cancelled out by a corresponding drop in income from council transfer stations.
'' ... we haven't really achieved a lot,'' Cr Stephen Jeffery said Council infrastructure services manager Jon Kingsford told councillors at last week's meeting the change to fortnightly rubbish collection six months ago resulted in 33% less rubbish being dumped so far this year, which resulted in significant savings for the council of about $76,000.
The drop in the total tonnage dumped at the Victoria Flats landfill meant savings in disposing of the rubbish and in transporting it to the landfill, which was good news.
Not such good news was the fact income from the council's transfer stations had also declined, ''effectively balancing out'' any savings, he said.
''In planning for the move to fortnightly refuse collection, impacts on income and expenses were anticipated. What was not anticipated was an increase in commercial businesses entering into a private contract for a skip.''
That had effectively reduced the amount of refuse and the income derived through refuse disposal at the council's transfer stations, Mr Kingsford said.
Several councillors said the rubbish collected by the commercial businesses was no longer the council's responsibility to dispose of, so that was beneficial and saved ratepayers money.
''If some of the stuff going to skips is not getting recycled ... we haven't really achieved a lot,'' Cr Jeffery said.
Cr Neil Gillespie asked if the council could ''complete the picture'' by finding out what happened to the 33% of rubbish not being dumped at the landfill.
If the amount in wheelie bins had decreased, even though a skip collection was being done by a third party, it was still a more efficient method of disposing of rubbish, Cr Nigel McKinlay said.
''So we're saving wheelie bin tonnage but not necessarily saving bulk bin tonnage,'' Cr Stu Duncan said.
Mr Kingsford said it was hoped savings from refuse disposal might offset the cost of increased council financial support for Central Otago WasteBusters, the district's only recycling business. However, that was obviously not going to be the case.
He recommended the council pay an extra $20,000 to WasteBusters to help with the increased recycling volume over the peak holiday period from mid-December to the end of January.
The money would cover glass collection.
The council agreed to cover that cost.
