Council issues warning with three strikes bin plan to combat 'upsetting' problem
Misuse your bin and you'll lose it. That's the message from a council in New Zealand that's fed up with people mixing the wrong items in with their recycling and compost.
The problem is so bad in a community southeast of Auckland that Whakatāne District Council had to send 745 tonnes of green waste to landfill because it was contaminated with items that shouldn't go in the green bin, costing ratepayers NZD$143,000 ($138,000).
In some cases, 67 per cent of waste was contaminated — the average is still a staggering 23.5 per cent — and this has meant one major recycling facility has refused to take the region's waste unless it's pre-sorted.
'It's quite upsetting when you see the stuff going to landfill… so we thought it was about time we actually took some steps to target the minority that aren't using the service correctly,' council's solid waste manager Nigel Clarke told Yahoo News Australia.
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Similar trials have been undertaken in Australia, where residents were threatened with fines after three strikes in one Adelaide local government area. But across the ditch, the plan will see Whakatāne residents given two written warnings, and if problems persist, their recycling or green-waste bins will be taken away for three months.
Whakatāne District Council isn't the first to trial confiscation in New Zealand, with South Waikato Hastings, Southland, and Hamilton all using similar methods. New Plymouth Council introduced its three strikes program after dead animals, nappies and even a shotgun were placed inside recycling bins.
Addressing Whakatāne's own programs, Clarke said garbage collectors often find black plastic bags of rubbish and clothing in green bins. Pictures supplied to Yahoo show yellow bins full of building materials, and soft plastics that can't be processed by council and need to be taken to Woolworths.
'The odd things we've had are a deer carcass in the recycling, a whole toilet in the recycling,' Clarke said.
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When residents have their green and yellow bins confiscated, they'll need to place recycling and garden waste in their regular bin, meaning it will go to landfill. And although that's regrettable, it will stop those households from contaminating everyone else's well-sorted waste. Bins will be returned after three months, but if the problem persists they'll be confiscated again.
Clarke believes there are two reasons some residents don't 'do the right thing', a lack of education or indifference to recycling. Council has tried education programs in the past, and will renew them before the confiscation plan begins.
'The three strikes campaign will just have an effect on those who have a general disregard for the service,' he said.
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