You may say “what’s she on about?” Well, currently you all have an opportunity to provide your feedback to Ashburton District Council on your views and thoughts about how we manage our household and other waste (or rubbish as it is commonly called).

This consultation goes under the heading of Waste Management and Minimisation Plan 2022.

We all need to stop and think about how we manage our waste responsibly.

As we fill the red bin weekly and the yellow bin fortnightly, we need to be asking ourselves if there is a better way to dispose of our waste.

Some items may be able to be used for garden composting, or have we checked that the plastics going in the yellow bin have the numbers 1, 2, or 5 on them in the little triangle sign.  If not they must go in the red bin, which means that unfortunately they end up going with the rest of the rubbish to the Kate Valley Landfill.

From the red bins we collect approximately 4000 tonnes each year, but fortunately from the yellow bins we manage to divert between 4000–5000 tonnes each year from going to landfill.

However there is more work to do, and in the consultation process you have the chance to have your say on the possibility of also having a household kerbside food waste collection option.

Personally in these times of such high costs for food, I struggle with the figures we see in the media of huge amounts of food waste – why don’t people eat it before it gets to the point it needs to be disposed of.  Food for thought.

So if this has captured your attention please take the opportunity to have your say – you can simply phone the council and the officers can complete your submission over the phone, or you can go on the website ashburtondc.govt.nz and click on the consultation tab, or simply collect the form from the council office, complete it and return it.

Your views are valued.