Ruapehu’s new kerbside food waste collection is off to a great start with high levels of support from local communities.

The kerbside food waste collection that runs alongside the existing blue bin recycling and pink rubbish bag service is key to diverting as much waste as possible from landfill, minimising our waste disposal costs, and supporting Ruapehu’s journey toward its Zero Waste 2040 vision.

Waste Minimisation Officer Dean Hosking said that Council was very happy with the first week of food waste collection with only a few minor teething problems encountered.

“Ruapehu is the first of the small rural councils to introduce food waste collection and turning it into compost with many much larger councils taking a keen interest in what we are doing,” he said.

“With increasing Government Waste Levies and community demands for better environmental outcomes all councils are looking to divert food and other compostable material away from the landfill.

Council has been very pleased to see the high level of support and excitement people have for the introduction of the food waste collection service.

Getting to this point has taken a lot of planning and hard work by our small waste minimisation team and we are very thankful for the support of our contractor EnviroWaste and the community for the initiative.

If people have any questions regarding the new service or their collection day, they can visit our website ruapehudc.govt.nz or give us a call on 07 895 8188 or 06 385 8364,” Mr Hosking said.

Glen Jones, EnviroWaste’s General Manager of Customers and Sustainability said that they were very excited to be supporting the implementation of Ruapehu’s Waste Management and Minimisation Plan including the new kerbside food waste collection service and Hot Composting Unit.

“What Ruapehu is doing with food waste is a footprint for others to follow and we are determined to help make it a success.

Our new arrangements with Council include incentives to help ensure we are all working toward diverting as much material away from landfill as possible and greater use of data to inform residents about adjustments to services and communications as needed.

One of the exciting changes with the introduction of a food waste collection is that Ruapehu now has its own waste truck fleet which allows the employment of local drivers

The new specially designed and built food waste collection truck is one of the first of its type and is designed to allow for multiple truck/pod variants to suit different needs and events.

This means that the truck can have different pods to service different needs such as an event like Mardi Gras, or pick-up different materials such as glass,” Jones said.

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