Households may notice a different truck picking up their kerbside rubbish over the next week as part of the Waitomo District Council’s (WDC) household waste audit.

Every two years WDC examine the District’s household waste habits as part of a planned audit to get a picture of the progress the district is making towards reducing waste.

The audit is carried out by an independent contractor who analyse randomly selected bags from the kerbside collection to see what the content is made up of.

Tony Hale, general manager infrastructure says, “The audit helps us to understand what households are throwing away and if that is changing over time.”

WDC’s last audit in 2018 saw 41.5% of kerbside waste being organic and food waste, since 2012 that figure has increased by over 200%. 

“We hope to see a decrease this year in the amount of food waste going into the landfill. When food ends up in the landfill, it decomposes without oxygen, and as a result releases methane, a harmful greenhouse gas,” says Hale.

The audit also helps determines where WDC need to focus education programmes for reducing waste.

"We have a focus on minimising waste across the district, not only for the environmental benefits but there is also a cost to ratepayers for disposing of waste so it’s in everyone’s best interests to look at what we’re throwing away and how that can be reduced.”

During July WDC will be hosting two events to help households reduce waste and will also share tips and information as part of Plastic Free July.

Te Kuiti’s kerbside collection audit will take place on Friday, July 3 and other areas across Waitomo on Tuesday, July 7. Results of this year’s audit will be included in WDC’s Annual Report which will be published later on in the year.

Upcoming events:

·         Learn To Make Your Own Beauty and Cleaning Products, Sunday 26 July.

·         Waste Free Workshop, Wednesday 5 August

See our Facebook page for more information on these events.