Justine Haves: Auckland Council's Waste Solutions General Manager comments on proposed fortnightly rubbish collection

Aucklanders are strongly rejecting a proposed fortnightly rubbish collection trial in select suburbs.

The six month trial would start in February, and involve 10-thousand homes in Te Atatu Peninsula, Panmure, Tamaki, Clendon Park and Weymouth.

Of the more than five thousand submissions, 78 percent were opposed.

Auckland Council's Waste Solutions General Manager Justine Haves told Heather du Plessis-Allan that a final decision will be made next month, but their goal is to cut down waste.

She says there's lots of evidence from other councils that fortnightly collections makes a huge difference to the volume of waste.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now Aucklanders have no surprise whatsoever, flat out rejected the
Council's idea of trialing fortnightly rubbish pickups and selects suburbs
around the city. It was places like the Tatitu Peninsula
and Panmure and Clinton Park or whatever, about three different
suburbs were going to be subject to this. They've got

(00:21):
over five thousand submissions from these suburbs. Seventy eight percent
of them said they're against the idea. Justine Habes is
the general manager of Waste Solutions at Auckland Council. Hij
justin hi there, please tell me you're not going to
go ahead with this now.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
That decision has not been made yet. That is a
decision for the Policy, Planning and Development Committee in December.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Would you guys do something even though you have opposition
at almost eighty percent, would you still go ahead with something?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Oh, as I say, that hasn't been decided yet, so
elected members will weigh up the consultation feedback alongside other
information as part of our advice in December and then
all make a decision about.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
This actually goes to the councilors sitting around the council table,
Does it Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
It does, yes in December.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
But based on your advice, so our advice.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Is being developed for their decision in December.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Would your advice ever be to do something that eighty
percent of the submissions say they don't want.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
We are developing that advice at the moment. I think
the important thing to recognize is that we've received a
great response from Aucklanders who have expressed the reasons for
their concern and a trial, and the key thing to
consider is whether we are able to mitigate those concerns
through the trial design, and whether the trial design will

(01:43):
then help elected members have more information on whether we
can succeed with Fortnightly in the future.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay, can I suggest that if you're going to recommend
doing this, which sounds very much like you are, that
you well, first of all, obviously don't do it, but
if you absolutely must do it, that you pay people
a little bit more all for it, because twenty eight
bucks is not a lot over the space of six months,
is it.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, so thank you for pointing out that is for
six months, so obviously the equivalent rates for mission on
an annual basis would be higher than that at Stars.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Once again, not a lot.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, So that is again one of the things that
the trial would help us test. So until we move
to a position where we understand information, we need to
work with assumptions, and our assumptions are at the moment
that that's the approximate value of the rates for mission.
But the trial would help us understand that further.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
What is the actual problem that you're trying to fix here.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
So we currently send one and a half million tons
of waste to landfill each year. That's enough to fill
ed and park each week. And there's lots of evidence
from other councils around New Zealand who've already introduced fortnightly
connection collections that it makes a massive difference to the
volume of waste to landfill. So that's something that we're

(03:01):
seeking to trial through.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
This because proposal. Honestly, Justine, you can accuse me of
being too cynical, and you wouldn't be the first. But
I looked at it and thought, nah, this is you
people trying to save money here, because then you only
have to roll out your trucks every fortnight instead of
every week, and that is more likely the real reason.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
No, So it is about achieving our waste minimization targets
for Auckland, and similar initiatives have been introduced by eighteen
other councils around New Zealand. This has been part of
our waste minimization plan since twenty twelve, so it's been
a consistent position for quite a period of time for Auckland.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
When you saw the feedback come back so overwhelmingly against it,
will you gut it?

Speaker 2 (03:45):
I really really appreciate the feedback of Auckland does and
as I say, the nature of the feedback super important
in terms of helping us understand what people's concerns are
and how we might be able to address those concerns.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yeah, were you surprised?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
No, I wasn't surprised because we have consulted on this
previously and we do understand the nature of people's concerns.
So I suppose in a way the consultation feedback was
very consistent with what we've heard previously.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Justine, thank you very much. I really appreciated. Justine Habes,
the General Manager of Wate Solutions at Auckland Council.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
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