Manukau Residents Told “Reduce Your Rubbish!”

Council is hoping residents get in behind a nationwide campaign designed to reduce the amount of rubbish people are sending to landfills. The 3-month-long focus on getting householders to "Reduce Your Rubbish" began last Friday with TV ads starting today.

The "Reduce Your Rubbish" campaign is co-ordinated by the Ministry for the Environment with the participation of most regional councils and local councils The nationwide TV ads show that when people send rubbish to landfills through our household collections, it is compacted tightly and just sits there for decades taking up space.

Cr. Noel Burnside, Chairperson of the Environmental Management Committee, says people need to become more responsible. “People need to think more about their attitude to waste. It doesn’t just disappear after it’s collected each week. It has to go somewhere and ultimately it still ends up in Manukau’s back yard.”

As part of the nation-wide reduce your rubbish campaign Manukau City Council has developed a programme known as Create Your Own Eden with the North Shore City Council and Auckland City Council, which involves easy steps for home composting and worm farming. The programme has run successfully for the last two years by the North Shore City Council.

Cr. Burnside says creating compost and mulch from kitchen and garden waste will reduce the amount of waste being disposed of in the household refuse collection and also reduce waste going to the landfill.

A series of composting classes are planned from May to November that will provide techniques and ways of reducing the time spent watering, weeding and maintaining the garden, promoting low-waste gardening.

A pamphlet with discount vouchers to the value of $10 off the purchase price of a compost or worm bin, or free first collection of a regular garden waste collection service, will be delivered to each household in the city. “Local politicians voted last month not to introduce user pays for waste management mainly because we felt user pays would be unfair for those that could least afford it. In saying that though everyone now has the responsibility for ensuring they continue to do their part to sort rubbish, recycle as much as they can and learn new ways of disposing of kitchen waste, “ said Cr. Burnside. On average, 45% of householders' rubbish can be composted, and a further 20% can be recycled, which means household rubbish sent to landfill could be reduced by 65%. It could be reduced even more if people think about what they buy, and buy recyclable packaging, buy in bulk and don’t accept unnecessary packaging.

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