Whakatane Waste Management
Whakatane district prides itself as clean anad green. Here you will find information about reducing your rubbish, greenwaste collection and some hints on composting.
Waste Management
Whakatane District Council is committed to reducing waste. The policy document which sets out waste reduction initiatives is the Waste Management Strategy.
Reducing rubbish around your home
Waste is something we do not have a use for anymore - it is a resource that we throw away. The Council is aiming to have zero waste, which means we all need to reduce, re-use and recycle our resources and not waste anything.
By reducing your rubbish you can:
• reduce the amount you pay for rubbish disposal each week
• reduce demands on natural resources
• reduce the amount of material disposed in landfills
• reduce the amount of rubbish incinerated, so we have cleaner air
• reduce future disposal costs to the Council, and ratepayers, for landfills
• save money on weekly grocery bills (some products with less packaging cost less)
• use products you’ve recycled yourself, such as compost and paper,instead of buying them, .
Available here to download is the Council's guide (A Guide to Waste Reduction) for household rubbish and recycling. Please note, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view these documents. If you do not have a copy installed, you can download it here.
Greenwaste Collection (Fortnightly Service)
The Council has agreed to offer a fortnightly greenwaste collection service using the existing 240 litre bin in urban areas. This service commences on Monday, 19 June 2006. The Council will follow a policy of monitoring and controlling levels of contamination. After three recorded and notified contaminations, the 240 litre bin will be removed and the service terminated. For more detail read the Greenwaste Collection Leaflet
Easy steps to reduce your rubbish
The following steps can dramatically reduce what ends up in your rubbish bag each week:
• buy products that use less packaging (economy size, refills or concentrates)
• buy products packaged in recyclable material, eg, paper, cardboard, glass, aluminium, tin or plastic containers - not plastic film
• avoid or reduce the use of disposables (razors, pens, plates and cups)
• when buying only one or two items, tell retailers "No bag please" and bring your own cloth bags to the supermarket for groceries
• buy products with recycled content in them - this means less natural resources are used and there is less waste produced in the long run
• re-use boxes and jars for storage, and keep wrapping paper and ribbons for future use
• think before you throw something away - donate re-usable toys, books and clothing to charities or your local 'Op Shop'
• take old appliances, furniture and bikes to a second-hand shop, rather than the transfer station
• collect and bundle clean flat paper and cardboard for the weekly recycling collection
• use your green recycling crate for glass bottles and jars, aluminium and tin cans, plastic bottles with 1 or 2 on the base (recyling leaflet)
• if you have a garden you can compost your grass clippings and tree pruning's, as well as fruit and vegetable scraps
• if you don’t have room to compost, use a worm bin indoors to dispose of kitchen scraps.
You can help to save our natural resources
Natural resources are ingredients, such as trees (renewable) and minerals (non-renewable) that make up all the products that we use, such as paper and aluminium cans. If we reduce the amount of things we buy and re-use them as much as possible before throwing them away we use less renewable and non-renewable resources, which saves us money and is good for the environment.
If we recycle what we can’t use any more,we save resources because the recyclable materials replace some of the natural resources including water and energy, which we use to make new products.
Become a smart shopper:
•avoid junk mail
•choose re-usable shopping bags
•buy products with less packaging (economy size and concentrates)
•buy products with recyclable packaging
•buy long-life products, not disposables
•buy products made with recycled content
•re-use products or packaging (refills, wrappings and second-hand purchases)
•donate or resell used items (clothing, toys, books, appliances, furniture, sports equipment)
•buy less toxic products or use natural alternatives (cleaners and pesticides)
•shop at environmentally aware businesses.
Avoid landfills
A landfill (informally referred to as a dump or a tip) is land where rubbish (solid waste) is compacted (squashed) and buried. It should be designed and managed so that no liquid or gas can harm our environment.
Rubbish produced in Whakatane District Council is disposed of in a landfill. There are many problems with landfills including:
•finding the right piece of land for the landfill
•preventing poisonous liquid (leachate) from entering our streams
•making sure the landfill does not produce harmful methane gas
•making sure that the landfill does not attract rats, and is looked after for many years so that it can eventually be made into a golf course or a park.