SUPPLIED
AN audit of Kāwhia’s rubbish shows the community has ground to make up in reducing the amount of rubbish going to landfill.
Kāwhia is lagging in that its rubbish bags have more recyclable plastics, soft plastics and paper and cardboard than Ōtorohanga rubbish bags.
But overall, the audit shows the rubbish bag contents from both towns align with national trends.
The Ōtorohanga District Council is required to audit its waste stream every six years.
The audit was carried out in December 2022 by Raglan-based Extreme Zero Waste.
The waste audit data helps the council focus on key problem areas that require more targeted advertising, which is key to changing behaviours and will help lower the amount of refuse going to landfill, ODC community facilities manager Jared le Fleming said in his report.
On a standard kerbside collection day, 10% of the rubbish bags were collected by council staff in Kāwhia and Ōtorohanga.
Each bag was sorted according to where it was from, weighed, and the contents emptied and divided into the primary classifications as recommended by the Ministry for the Environment’s Solid Waste Analysis Protocol. The average Kāwhia rubbish bag weighed 6.2kg with a volume of 58 litres. Sixteen percent of the rubbish was recyclable, 35% compostable and 48% landfill.
“Our data and national trends show compostable material accounting for a large percentage of the contents,” Jared said.
Kāwhia’s recycling level had stayed the same since 2020, while Ōtorohanga’s recycling had decreased.
“Educating the communities of Ōtorohanga and Kāwhia about their waste could achieve a further 23% and 29% by volume of waste diverted to recycling,” Jared said.
