A kerbside recycling service may still be introduced in the Waitaki district towns, but a lot will depend on what the Waitaki District Council does.
The council on December 16 will consider a recommendation from its assets committee that it abandon a proposal for a single-bin kerbside recycling service and investigate whether it will continue its weekly "black bag" rubbish collection service in urban areas.
Instead, any recycling service would be left to the market to provide, but two possible providers contacted are waiting to see what the council will finally do.
The Waitaki Resource Recovery Trust already operates a drop-off recycling service at its Chelmer St resource recovery parks.
Awamoa Bins, owned and operated by Murray and Maree Hocking, offers a recycling service to clients, processing about 500 tonnes of recyclables a year.
While both said they could consider offering households a kerbside recycling service, they would want long-term security for what would be a considerable investment.
They are waiting to see what the final decisions will be by the council.
Mr Hocking said it was "early days" in terms of expanding the Awamoa Bins' service. He had done some initial investigation.
"But we need to see what the council does, whether the weekly bag service continues and what markets do," he said.
At present, the market for recyclables was depressed because of the global economic crisis. He still had an outlet for cardboard, paper and plastics but, while it was being collected at no cost, he was not being paid for it.
"I can't continue to process and press it if I'm getting nothing for it," Mr Hocking said.
Resource recovery trust chief executive Marian Shore said that, at this stage, the trust was waiting to see what the council decided and what sort of long-term security there would be if the trust invested in a kerbside recycling collection.
"It will need a huge investment, and there needs to be some sort of security."
The trust still had markets for its recyclables under contracts it held because of the quality it produced, but prices had dropped, Ms Shore said.
