Auckland City Council - City Scene

Determined to reduce growing rubbish levels, Auckland City has joined other councils in the Auckland region to campaign against waste.

Residents might not like the message, which is 'your waste is your responsibility', but, say councils, they can't blame the messenger!

The facts speak for themselves. Solid waste is one of the region's biggest problems, it is getting worse, and it is people who create the rubbish. In the past 12 months the region's rubbish crept up a further eight percent from 913,000 to 990,000 tonnes per annum.

This is the third increase in three years, and if there is no significant improvement, the region's solid waste mountain will be set to top one million tonnes early in the year 2000.

In Auckland City, domestic waste tonnages increased by about 30 per cent between 1991 and 1997. The population increase for the same period was only 13 per cent. Also, it is estimated that Aucklanders generate 2.2kg of waste per person, per day compared with Sydney and Melbourne figures of 0.9kg, 1.5kg in Brisbane and 1.6kg for Adelaide.

Chairperson of the council's Works Committee, Councillor Doug Astley, says that each month Auckland City produces enough waste to fill a five-storey high rugby field. Most waste ends up in four landfills, two of which will close in about 2003.

Councillor Astley says the regional campaign "Your Waste is Your Responsibility" calls on people to change their attitude to waste. "Solid waste is one of the few environmental issues that the average person can have an immediate and profound effect upon.

"Given the range of waste reduction, re-use and recycling programmes available there is no excuse for residents to say that waste is someone else's problem. If everyone makes just one small change, we could really turn the region's waste problem around."

Residents can call a 0800 REDUCE (0800 733 823) hotline to ask about regional and local waste reduction programmes.

© Scoop Media