Tania Hermann: Hamilton City Council Operate and Maintain Unit director speaks in defence of food scrap bins

One Hamilton City Council staffer is speaking in defence of food scrap bins.

Whanganui District Council has made the decision to ditch food scrap bins for good- because they've been dubbed 'expensive' and 'unpopular'.

Hamilton City Council's Tania Hermann argued that food scrap bins were good for households - as they helped reduce waste.

"What we're aiming to do is stop rubbish going to landfills."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ryan Bread.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Now I have an announcement, a very exciting announcement for
you this evening. I'm moving to Hoanganui. Do you know why?
It's all to do with their bins? Living in Auckland,
you're supposed to separate your food scraps from the general
trash then put them in a separate bin. And who
can be bothered with that? The answer is not many,
if any, Well, not in Hoanganui district, where the council

(00:22):
has just canceled plans to introduce food scrap bins because
they're expensive and unpopular. Who would have thought. Unfortunately for them,
they've already purchased nineteen thousand bins, so they are going
to have to throw the bins in the bin. Now
in Auckland, Hamilton and Totong and a bunch of other
councils around the country, they're still doing this. Of course.
Tanya Herman is Hamilton City Council's Operate and Maintain Unit

(00:46):
director and she's with me this evening. Hi Tanya, Hi.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Ryan, how are you good?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Thank you? So you guys have got is this? What
do people paying their rates in Hamilton for this?

Speaker 1 (00:58):
So we general rubbish is rated differently, so it's part
of our general rates, so we don't have a targeted
So we budget thirty three dollars per in in per
household for our food scrap service.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Right, and how many households use the food scrap bin.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
We've got about sixty three thousand households and we have
about forty percent of our households to use the bin regularly.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
And does all do all of the households have to
pay the thirty three dollars even if they don't use
the bin.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yes, that's correct because it's all part of our suite
of services for rubbish and recycling.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
But is that fair if you're not using the suite?

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Well, it's an option to give to our households. What
we're aiming to do is reduce rubbish going to.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Lengthal So option implies sorry, Tana, just to stop you.
But option implies that you have the option to say no,
which they don't.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
They don't know because it's part of our general rate,
and that rate covers a whole raft of our rubbish
and recycling services. That it's not broken down like a
targeted rate where you can opt in or opt out
of a targeted rate. This is a general so it
covers the whole range of services available for rubsh recycling.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Okay, fair enough, all right, So since you brought this in,
because the whole idea is that it will reduce carbon
emissions from landfill. So since this has been brought in,
what has the reduction being in carbon emissions from landfills?

Speaker 1 (02:17):
So it's hard to quantify exactly how much that is,
but as an example, what we do know is that
we're diverting four hundred tons of food scraps per month
and that Tumilton normally from going to landfill, so does
in itself will have a positive impact.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
But you must measure the carbon emissions that are coming
from landfills. Surely have they gone up or down?

Speaker 1 (02:37):
We do, and as a region we do. It's hard
to calculate it specifically on food scraps alone because there's
a number of factors that have to be taken into
play in that calculation. But like I said, by having
four hundred tonnels of food scraps being diverted from landfill,
which creates me saying if it goes to landfill that's
having an impact or will be having an impact.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Surely you would know. I mean, Okay, here's a question,
regardless of what's happening with the food scraps, has carbon
emissions from landfills increased or decreased since you made this change.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
It's our landfall specifically goes to Hampton Down, so it's
calculated across the Auckland and White Cuttle regions. So the
emissions are started. We are starting to see a decrease
across the board as a specific to Hamilton. I don't
I couldn't give you those exact figures.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
All right, interesting, Tarnia, thank you very much for that.
Keep up the good work. I'm sure that we people
who won't agree, but that's the life of being in council,
isn't it. Tarnier Herman, who was the Hamilton City Council
Operate and Maintain Unit director. For more from Heather Duplessy
Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be from
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