Graham Sullivan made the remarks as concerns were aired about a change already under way at the recycling centres in Omarama, Kurow and Otematata.
The administrator for Facebook group The Upper Waitaki Community Page, Sarah Rowland, had been approached by members of the online community concerned about the lack of consultation on the decision to stop selling recycled items at the Kurow and Omarama recycling sheds.
Waitaki District Council councillor Craig Dawson said the decision and consultation were examples of poor communication from some Waitaki District Council departments.
"Sometimes there’s good communication from [some] departments and poor in others."
Mr Sullivan approached the council last year with concerns about the state of the recycling sites and said they needed to be cleaned up, but the board was not consulted on the decision to cease sales, he said.
He understood the sales were not supposed to have occurred in the first place, but they had and the service had been used.
He said community feedback was coming, but the valley townships needed to put their thoughts into action.
"This is a big issue for our valley. People are going to have to be aware and people are going to have to pay. People are going to have to realise it’s user-pays."
Council water services and waste manager Martin Pacey said the council was in the process of reviewing its waste management and minimisation plan and would consult the towns within the next 12 months.
Mr Pacey said over several months it became clear goods thought to be resaleable were not.
As a result, a large amount of unsaleable items stockpiled and had to be disposed of at a cost to ratepayers, so action was taken and board members informed.
"To avoid the large volumes of unsaleable items growing again, the decision was made to discontinue accepting resaleable items free of charge, cease attempting to on-sell them, and instead dispose of them as general waste and charge the customer accordingly."
Mr Sullivan urged people to turn up to a consultation meeting on the three recycling centres at the Otematata Lakes Centre at 10am on Saturday.
