Recycling being sorted at its ultimate destination – the recycling sorting centre in Te Awamutu.
Pirongia’s Ursula Edgington wants Waipā District Council staff to address – then curb – what she’s labelled worsening and ongoing issues with the village’s roadside rubbish and recycling collection.
A report Edgington penned last month addressed to the Te Awamutu and Kihikihi Community Board outlined her concerns.
It was subsequently referred to the Pirongia Ward Committee and was scheduled to be discussed at the committee’s June meeting held yesterday (Wednesday) after The News went to print.
Edgington wrote of “multiple and numerous” instances where rubbish and recycling was either not picked up on schedule, or was not being collected at all.
She said such non-collections had been happening for at least the five years she has lived in Pirongia.
Bryan Hudson
In a response, Waipā District Council transportation manager Bryan Hudson said the council was aware of the issues and had hired an additional resource.
Roads of particular concern her report highlighted included Penny Rd and Crozier St, “…but it occurs elsewhere, as per the numerous complaints to the council that are recorded”.
General rubbish collections were being missed more frequently than recycling was, she said.
“Most recently, there was a whole month during which none of the scheduled collections for either of our recycling wheelie bins occurred.
“This caused numerous problems… and wheelie bins were understandably overflowing…”
Edgington’s report stated there was no provision – without either an associated cost or some form of inconvenience – to dispose of the additional recycling.
“And, when the trucks did finally arrive, the drivers only took what was inside the bins and none of the additional recycling left in a safe pile at the side of the road,” she stated.
Edgington said a truck on the road collecting recycling, but leaving some behind was “…bad value for money, bad for the environment and not sustainable in the longer-term.”
The additional costs of retrospectively getting uncollected rubbish and recycling into the correct facility, she said, meant either paying for an additional general landfill collection, or the cost of fuel and time in taking the recycling to the recycling facility, “…which was not always open at convenient times…”
Edgington said those additional general landfill collection costs were roughly $19 per wheelie bin.
“When ratepayers have already paid their rates for the regular collection of recycling, the lack of service is unacceptable,” she said.
According to information she acquired in an Official Information Act request, Waipā ratepayers pay council contractors $2.5m per year.
She called for regular monitoring and penalty payments.
Hudson said an additional staff member was employed in early May to provide a greater level of oversight.
Paying compensation – or providing an alternative service – when collections were missed was “…nice in theory, but in practice it would be impossible,” he added.
