Council Staff responsible if recycling target not met

The ODT reports that Dunedin residents may have rates increases if they do not increase recycling when the new recycling scheme comes in.

If there are rates increases because the budgeted target for the new recycling plan are not met, then it is the responsibility of the Council staff who planned this project. They were told that large wheelie bins were not suitable for many Dunedin properties because of space and access issues. Many people will chose the medium-size wheelie-bin. And many more will stop recycling all-together because the option of a small bin was removed from the new recycling scheme.

See also this thread on Whatif?

Recycling Submission

This is my submission to the Dunedin City Council on the proposed changes to Recycling:

I support the preferred Option C Proposal if:
1. Householders have a choice of recycling bins : i.e they can chose to use an alternative to the new 140-litre wheelie bin if they believe that it is more convenient for them.
2. That the cost is not more than the estimated $70. There is a serious risk that this proposal could be approved by the Council but the actual cost could turn out to be significantly higher. Any
approval should be conditional on a guarantee of the maximum cost.
Otherwise the current recycling system should be retained.
For non-recyclable rubbish, I support the current black rubbish-bag and private-contractor system because user-pays encourages waste minimization.

It is interesting that the Council now seems to be offering households a choice of recycling bins, despite voting against Councillor Walls' proposal for choice (see my previous post).
City Talk says:

For example,larger households will be able to get 240 litre bins for their recycling needs, and people with low recycling needs or access issues will be able to use small 40 litre stacking bins.

And the DCC website says:

Note: a choice of container size will be available for co-mingled recycling specific to individual requirement. Refer to pamphlet in the Consultation documents.

The ODT also has an article on Recycling. In the sidebar (but not online): the Council aims to increase recycling per year per household from 114 kg to 150 kg by 2016. We will see: there will be some increase from more types of plastics being recycled, but I am not convinced that people are not recyling material because their current bin is not big enough.
Another solution is not to create the rubbish to begin with. Our household has recently had a considerable reduction in the volume of recycling, by putting up a "No Junk Mail" sign!

Recycling Consultation Questions

On Friday morning, I sent an email to the Dunedin City Council with some questions on the proposed changes in Recycling. I will post the answers when, and if, I receive them.

• What % increase in recycling volumes are you expecting with Option C?
• How much of this increase do you expect will come from having bigger bins?
• You estimate $20 extra for Option C. Does this take into account improved returns from separation of recycling material? If so, how much?
• How much slower do you expect recycling rounds to be with wheeled bins?
• What percentage of households do you expect to be approved to use alternatives to the new standard 140 litre bin?

My previous post on Misleading Recycling Consultation is here.

Misleading Recycling Consultation

The Dunedin City Council promotional material for the consultation on Recycling changes (pdf here) features a smiling Solid Waste Manager, Ian Featherston, alongside the various "choices" of recycling bins. Anyone reading this material would expect to have a choice of bins, if the proposed scheme is implemented.
But in the official consultation proposal (pdf here), there is no choice: everyone must use the new 140-litre wheelie-bin, unless they apply and are approved on a "special needs" basis. In fact, the Council recently considered and rejected the suggestion, by Councillor Richard Walls, of giving house-holders a choice of bins (ODT story here).
It will be interesting to see how the Council deals with this apparent blunder, during the consultation process. It will be sensitive to criticism following the Parking fiasco.
I think that that choice of recycling bins would be a good thing because no size will suit everybody. There are thousands of households where a 140-litre wheelie-bin would not be suitable because they have steps or do not have room. Now that the "choice" genie is out of the bottle, it will be hard to put back in again.