{"id":608745,"date":"2026-09-23T02:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T02:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/608745\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T02:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T02:08:13","slug":"no-discount-on-new-city-bin-service-despite-three-month-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/608745\/","title":{"rendered":"No discount on new city bin service despite three-month delay"},"content":{"rendered":"

There will be no rebate for Rotorua ratepayers despite the three-month delay<\/a> for a new kerbside collection service that is set to start next week.<\/p>\n

By Mathew Nash of Local Democracy Reporting <\/p>\n

While the new system is still copping flak on social media, the Rotorua Lakes Council maintains the benefits will outweigh the costs.<\/p>\n

About 26,000 properties have been delivered new bins for weekly food scraps and garden (FOGO) waste collections, with general rubbish pick-ups moving to fortnightly from October 1.<\/p>\n

The rollout was previously scheduled to start on July 1, but it was delayed after bin supply issues related to the ongoing conflict in Iran.<\/p>\n

This left some residents questioning why they were still charged for a full year of FOGO in their rates.<\/p>\n

\"About<\/p>\n

About 26,000 Food Organics and Green Organics (FOGO) bins have been delivered across the Rotorua district. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n

The annual charge for the new organics service is $27.52, so three months\u2019 worth would be $6.88, or $176,800 across all affected households.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s waste and climate change manager, Craig Goodwin, said no rebates or rates adjustments would be offered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rate covers the full cost of establishing and delivering the service, including bin purchases, system set-up, communications, contracts and other implementation costs, many of which have already been incurred,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also addressed criticism by residents who say they already compost at home, are concerned about reduced rubbish collection frequency, or disagree with paying for a service they may not use.<\/p>\n

On the council\u2019s social media, some critics called the new system a “waste of time” or a “smelly disaster” in waiting. Other comments were more positive, mentioning the expected reduction in waste sent to landfill and a more sustainable new system.<\/p>\n

Goodwin told Local Democracy Reporting food and garden waste made up a significant share of the rubbish being sent to landfill.<\/p>\n

“Diverting this material from landfill will help constrain escalating waste management costs driven by landfilling taxes, lower emissions to the environment, and support more sustainable long-term waste management for Rotorua,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The new food and garden organics (FOGO) kerbside collection service bins. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n

Goodwin said waste audits showed food and garden waste made up more than half the material currently going into household rubbish bins.<\/p>\n

“This evidence informed community consultation in 2022, where 85% of respondents supported an organics collection service and most also supported moving to fortnightly rubbish collections alongside it.”<\/p>\n

Residents have also raised hygiene concerns about the move to fortnightly rubbish collections, especially those with small children or medical needs.<\/p>\n

Goodwin said households would have more overall waste collection capacity under the new system.<\/p>\n

Those needing more capacity could request larger or extra rubbish bins for a fee.<\/p>\n

As for residents who already compost, Goodwin said properties contributed to the cost of FOGO in the same way they contributed to other council services.<\/p>\n

“Properties within the service area contribute to the overall cost of providing the collective service regardless of individual use,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said the council would \u201ccontinue to support home composting\u201d, with FOGO seen as an additional option for food scraps and other more difficult-to-compost materials.<\/p>\n

The council has also run a marketing campaign before the launch, although the final cost is not yet known with much of the work done in-house and supported by funding from the Ministry for the Environment\u2019s Waste Levy Fund, Goodwin said.<\/p>\n

The council would assess the success of the rollout through participation rates, contamination levels, customer feedback and the amount of organic waste diverted from landfill.<\/p>\n

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including the Taxpayers Union fires back at Nicky Hager, and Liam Lawson’s job change. (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There will be no rebate for Rotorua ratepayers despite the three-month delay for a new kerbside collection service…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[273,42,43,1756,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-608745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-environment","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-tauranga-bay-of-plenty","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}