Disposer pays riles
Paying extra to have your rubbish collected isn't a fair deal, one Manukau resident says.
Nick Papadopoulos agrees with much of the Auckland Council's draft plan to standardise waste collection across the region – including a new compost bin for every household.
But the idea of disposer pays, which would see a charge of about $2.50 for each wheelie bin of rubbish collected, is "double dipping", he says.
"I pay $1700 in rates and $190 of that is for rubbish disposal and a recycling bin.
"Under the new scheme, what's going to happen to that money?"
Rubbish in the former Manukau city is still collected in bags and collection is funded from general rates.
But some people like Mr Papadopoulos pay a private company to collect wheelie bins because they fear dogs will tear into the bags.
Recycling and compost collection won't have a user pays component under the council's new scheme.
Disposer pays is just one element of the council's draft waste management plan which is now open for submissions.
Sixty-nine percent of submitters from the Manukau ward so far support disposer pays while 77 percent from Manurewa-Papakura approve of it and 81 percent in Franklin are in favour.
But those figures are based on just 96 responses from the three southern wards as of Thursday last week.
That's only 11.25 percent of the 853 submissions received from across the entire Auckland region.
Mr Papadopoulos doesn't believe most people in south Auckland are engaged with the waste management plan process.
"Ordinary people are struggling in life and too busy just living to even know about these things."
Running the submissions process during the Christmas holiday period is also likely to cut the number from south Auckland, he says.
Disposer pays charges are likely to increase the amount of illegal dumping across the south even further if they're introduced.
"People don't want to pay," he says.
Those sentiments were echoed by southern councillors Sir John Walker, Alf Filipaina and Arthur Anae when they spoke to the Manukau Courier in November.
There are several other elements to the waste management and minimisation plan, which will be adopted mid-year with services starting in 2015.
Included are wheelie bins for recycling and compost funded by general rates or the surcharge on rubbish bins and introducing a waste reduction target of 30 percent.
Deputy mayor Penny Hulse says the aim of the plan, including disposer pays, is to cut the 800kg of waste per person sent to landfills each year.
"The first step is to get feedback on what's proposed in the plan and gather any other great ideas from households, businesses and community groups to assist us in ensuring the plan is robust and on the right track," she says.
The full plan is available in various languages and the submission forms are available at www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz, at local board offices, council service centres and libraries.
The deadline for submissions is January 31.
By Scott Morgan, Manukau Courier, 26 Jan 2012
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