Angela Dalton: Auckland councillor on upcoming fortnightly rubbish collection trial

Less than two months ago, Auckland appeared ready to change its rubbish collection to a fortnightly service.

But now councillors have voted to trial the change instead of implementing it or retaining the weekly service.

It will start two-weekly collections in up to three areas for up to 4000 households, before deciding on region-wide rollout.

Manurewa-Papakura Ward councillor Angela Dalton joined Francesca Rudkin.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right. Less than two months ago, Auckland appeared ready to
change the rubbish collection to a fortnightly service, but now
counselors have voted to trial the change in instead of
implementing it or retaining the weekly service. So Angela Dalton

(00:22):
is counselor for Manyea Pupacorda Ward and voted in support
of the trial. Angela joins me, now, good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hi Francesca, you support you.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Supported the trial. Why did you vote for it? What
did you want to see come out of it?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
I think the trial is a really good opportunity to
test out how a fortnightly collection will go across Auckland,
so selecting parts of Auckland that can be measured as
to the success. I think the important thing for me
has been able to target the households who were struggling
with weekly collections to just find out why that is.

(01:02):
There's lots of alternatives for households that are struggling with
their rubbish collections. This will be a good time to
see what the issue.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Is, what kind of alternatives.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
There's about fourteen options of different types of bin choices
for people. There's three different red lid bins if people
need a bigger bin, because I'm saying it's a small
bin that's being propped open with the red lips propped
open with rubbish. You know that those people need a
bigger bin. Do they need to bins? Are they using
the recycling then? Do they need to food waste bins?

(01:36):
So there are options for people who are struggling if
it is just with the one red bin. I think
getting a closer look at that is going to be
really helpful through the trial process.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Do you think the community is ready for fortnightly collection?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
No, they said they weren't, having said that it was
pretty split, so fifty you know, it's pretty split. So
half of Auckland does and half of Aukland doesn't. So
let's not not do it because have don't. Let's give
it a try and let's see if we can you know,
if it will work. And this will not start until
twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
You know just what you've explained to me, then, Angela,
it makes so much makes me relax a little bit
more about the whole thing, because I'm probably one of
those Aucklanders who wasn't quite ready to go a fortnightly collection.
But the minute you say you know what, there can
be alternatives. You need to work out what you need.
You might need a bigger bin or two bins, so
there are those options. Does it change what we would
then pay in your rates or would it still be

(02:35):
a set fee?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Well, the different bins come at a different cost per year.
I think what we could do and I'm not probably
we're going to do this, but I think what we
could and should do is upgrade that thin at no
cost because at the moment it would cost forty dollars
for someone to upgrade their bin, right, you know, let's
see if we can just get that bin to them
for free. And the variants across Auckland we do have

(03:00):
for contacting us at want a monthly collection to the
point where it's something we want to seriously look at.
Where we do have people that do only need a
four weekly collection and that will be our rates decrease
for them. And I think we need to meet the
needs of all Aucklanders and this the trial, I think

(03:21):
is really going to help us home and on what
that is.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
And I'd like to thank the elderly ladies who live
next to me Angela, who very sweetly occasionally tell me
that I can use their empty bin. There we go,
and that's what happens. Right, You've got you can have
one person living alone, then you can have a family
of eight, you know, so it is quite different. We
should be we should be making sure we cater to
everybody fairly. I feel like we're going to need some

(03:44):
education on rubbish sorting before we just take the collection away,
because I wonder whether people if they go, Okay, I've
got I've got this red bin, it's every two weeks,
I'm just going to put a little bit more stuff
in recycling where I'm going to yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, and that's what happens. But we have some amazing
local community. You're going to say, I've got one out
my way called Talking Trash, and they work with those
families and those households and they soon get them sorting
out the you know, their recycling from their waste, redbin
waste and their food waste. So it is you're absolutely right.

(04:18):
It's about education. I'm not the best in myselfs don't
hold me up as a model recycler, but you know,
I do them my bit. And that's the big thing
with what we're trying to do. We're in the twelfth
year of our waste plan waste management plan to achieve
the targets set by central government. So it's not council
coming up with a great idea out of the air.

(04:41):
We have transitioned our way here. So part of that
was implementing the community recycling centers. It's been a huge
game danger for communities in terms of their recycling. We
did take away in organic in the streets to make
it on within the household area. And there also has
been a big change in terms of making sure that

(05:04):
we're getting the right rubbish through the right recycling places,
so lots of steps and fortnightly rubbish collections for the
next cave off. The rank didn't fly, so let's go
with a trial and see if we can get that.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Angela, thank you so
much for your time. That was alland counselor Angela Dalton.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
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Speaker 1 (05:27):
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