Kapiti has one of NZ’s worst records on waste
Deirdre Kent, secretary for Low Carbon Kapiti says Kapiti council has revealed shocking statistics about the district’s waste.
In a letter to KIN, she says: “Recently the council did a comprehensive audit on waste, analysing the content of 240 litre, 120 litre, and 80 litre bins, as well as rubbish bags.
“It found some horrifying statistics, including this: of all the councils cited by the consultant at WasteNot, Kapiti Coast collected more waste per capita per annum than any other. In fact it was twice as much as Christchurch.”
Urgent prioriities
She says these are the problems which must be faced:
1. The data is not reliable. The council simply has to find out from the waste companies what is coming in from the outside. This has been going on for a while. In fact when the last report came out showing a 33% increase per capita kerbside waste per annum in the period 2011-2105, the council officers were uncertain this was true. To rely on poor data because profit driven companies fail to cooperate is not good enough.
- 2. More than half the waste we put out could be composted or recycled. The bigger the bin the more this applies. For the larger 240 litre bins it is two thirds. This is not a problem that can be quickly solved with a little education. It requires policy solutions.
- 3. We urgently need to work out how to get a kerbside organic waste collection. Christchurch has half the waste per capita that we do. Not only do they have organic collection, but also they only collect rubbish every fortnight, and in a smaller bin.
- 4. A first step would be limiting the size of our wheelie bins to 120 litre.
Ms Kent adds: “We at Low Carbon Kapiti have launched a petition to this effect at http://bit.ly/2zKcXVb and urge you to sign it.”