Kerbside recycling could be introduced sooner than first envisaged in the Waitaki district if the Waitaki District Council's assets committee agrees to that on Tuesday.
Recycling would be done in stages, starting with recycling bins, so the amount of rubbish going to the Oamaru and Palmerston landfills could be reduced.
That follows a decision in May by the council, under public and councillor pressure, to abandon a tendering process it had followed to change the way solid waste was managed in the Waitaki district.
The kerbside recycling service the council was considering was contentious, along with the future of the Waitaki Resource Recovery Trust and its resource recovery park in Oamaru's Chelmer St.
Solid waste officer Gerry O'Neill has suggested introducing a new waste management system in stages to divert rubbish from the landfills as quickly as possible.
It would also mean people could be progressively educated on reducing rubbish.
"A total solution approach to solid waste services was likely to take an extended period to implement and a better approach would be to split the services and implement in 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.
There was also more consensus on recycling, he said, making recycling efforts a good place to start.
