Food scraps are to be temporarily removed from kerbside collections due to COVID-19 staff shortages.

The food scraps bin will not be collected from Thursday 3 March until further notice, as many of the region’s kerbside collection drivers have either contracted the virus or are household contacts and are following Ministry of Health advice to self-isolate.

Tauranga City Council’s Manager for Sustainability and Waste, Sam Fellows says that the reduced service will allow available drivers to focus on collecting the yellow-lid recycling bins, blue glass crates, green lid garden waste bins and red-lid general rubbish bins.

“We apologise for the inconvenience of the reduced service, but prioritising collections will ensure the health and safety of our community, drivers and staff in these trying times.” says Sam.

During this time, you can freeze your food scraps if you have room or place them in your green lid garden waste bin, if you have opted in for one, or your red lid rubbish bin.

“We thank everyone for their understanding and patience at this time. We are working hard to maintain operations with our kerbside collection and at our transfer stations, and we will update the community as the situation changes.” says Sam.

The reduction in available drivers will also affect the Bin Change campaign the Council is running. “Our priority is currently to pick up as many collections as possible, therefore residents needing new or replacement bins will see some delay” he says.

If driver availability continues to worsen other services may be affected beginning with glass, followed by recycling then rubbish.

For more information visit our website or download the Tauranga Kerbside Collections app. You can use this app to report a missed or broken bin, or to request an alternative bin bundle. It can also let you know when and what bins are due for collection and send you reminders. The Tauranga Kerbside Collections app is free and can be downloaded to your device from the App Store or Google Play.

© Scoop Media