Clean Streets campaign kicks off in Queenstown CBD

A campaign to move rubbish bags and recycling off streets in the Queenstown CBD kicks off this Friday for a three month trial.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council has set up 11 locations where businesses can leave their blue bags and cardboard for collection twice a day. Outside those times and places, the Council will treat as “litter” any bags or recycling put out on the street.

Crs Merv Aoake and “Ferg” Ferguson sparked the scheme when they asked whether there was a way to reduce the amount of rubbish left on busy footpaths, and give visitors a better impression of central Queenstown.

Regulatory Manager Lee Webster said this had prompted discussions with the Chamber of Commerce and the Council’s waste and recycling contractors, and a rethink of the way that waste was collected in the centre of town.

QLDC staff and the two councillors will be distributing information about the trial with a map of the 11 collection points over the next two days, and the trial will start on Friday.

Businesses can put out their blue bags and pre-paid cardboard recycling in the collection zones at 8am and 2pm, and the items will be picked up half an hour later. The 11 collection areas have been located so that staff from nearby businesses have no more than 50m to walk with their bags and recycling.

“We’ll be working with businesses to help them move to the new system,” Mr Webster said. If blue bags were left in the wrong places or put out at the wrong time, Council staff would check the bags to identify where they came from, then visit the business to make sure staff understood what they should be doing. “If that business continues to put its rubbish out at the wrong time or in the wrong place, they will be receiving an instant fine for littering under the new bylaw that the Council adopted last month. Fines range from $100 to $400 for each infringement, depending on the amount of litter involved.”

Mr Webster thanked the Council’s contractors, AllWaste and Smart Environmental, for changing their CBD collection routes and times to fit in with the new scheme.

“We’re going to monitor the trial throughout the three months and at the end we’ll sit down with everyone and review what we achieved, see whether it worked and what might need changing.”

Map showing the new collection points in the CBD

ENDS

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