29 June 2016

Auckland Council’s text trial exceeds expectations

A text message trial set up by Auckland Council is proving to be a hit, with thousands of Northwest residents signing up for the service.

The trial has been designed to help transition residents in Rodney, Hibiscus Coast, Waitakere and the North Shore to new recycling collection days.

In the first week alone more than 15,000 people signed up to the free service, exceeding the council’s estimate that it would be utilised by around 10,000 people.

Parul Sood, Auckland Council Waste Planning Manager, says the original figure was a conservative estimate on expected uptake and is blown away by the positive response.

“We put the customer at the heart of our decisions so when we hit the mark with a new service designed to assist them, it’s a great feeling,” she says.
Councillor George Wood, chair of Auckland Council's Regional Policy and Strategy Committee, says the recycling service changes are an important milestone in transforming Auckland's waste services.

“We are about to see a big change in the way we manage waste across the region. The text reminder is a great way to keep on top of it and I am delighted that residents are using it,” he says.

"People must carefully check as to their pick up days, which could have changed."

Residents in Rodney, Hibiscus Coast, Waitakere and North Shore can free text their address to 3169 and receive a reminder text the day prior to their new recycling collection.

The Northwest recycling rollout has seen more than 200,000 households provided with new larger recycling bins and many will experience a change in collection day as a result of new collection routes. In Waitakere and the North Shore, the collection day change also applies to orange council rubbish bag collections.

Ms Sood says the reminder text service is a customer-friendly solution to a very real pain point.

“We know that changing collection days can be confusing, so we wanted to put in place a simple and practical solution to help ease the inconvenience.”
She says the texting tool will be valuable to inform residents of new services
ENDS

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