The first step to introduce kerbside recycling in the Waitaki district was taken yesterday with a bin system being recommended in principle by the Waitaki District Council's assets committee.
However, it is not final - the council will still have to approve that and some councillors yesterday warned they would oppose it.
Mayor Alex Familton emphasised the committee had only "agreed in principle" so staff could go away and put the "practical elements" around the proposal, which would then have to be approved by the council.
Assets group manager Neil Jorgensen said the recycling proposal was a start, and met the community's wishes.
Cr Struan Munro said the council had to move forward but Cr Peter Twiss was "staggered" by the proposal, coming immediately after the committee yesterday established terms of reference for a solid waste sub-committee.
Recycling was a third of the new management strategy.
The proposal to introduce kerbside recycling as the first step in a new waste management strategy for the district would reduce the amount of rubbish going into the Oamaru and Palmerston landfills which were filling up.
It follows a decision in May by the council to abandon a tendering process it had followed to change the way solid waste was managed in the Waitaki district.
Solid waste officer Gerry O'Neill said a total solution approach to solid waste management would take some time to implement and a better approach would be to split the services into stages.
"This will start some diversion from landfill and introduce the community to kerbside recycling," he said.
The first stage would be recycling, with green and residual waste collection solutions coming later.
"Grassroots democracy" was how Cr Peter Garvan yesterday described giving copies of meeting agendas to people who wanted them.
But other councillors questioned why other ratepayers should contribute up to $30,000 a year to subsidise the service for other people.
A council committee recommended that posting up to 74 agendas each meeting free to individuals and groups should cease from July 1, apart from stakeholder groups requesting them.
Instead, they will be made available through the council website or for public viewing at council headquarters in Oamaru, the Kurow Community Centre, Waihemo Service Centre, Oamaru and Otematata Libraries.
