Some town centre businesses across north and west Auckland will need to start looking for alternative recycling services for trade quantities of cardboard from August.
Yesterday, Auckland Council’s Finance and Performance Committee recommended the current service be stopped, as part of its deliberations on the Annual Budget. The decision is due for final approval by the Governing Body on 29 June.
Why stop this service?
Commercial cardboard collection services are only provided to shopping areas and town centres in parts of Rodney, Waitākere and the North Shore – these are arrangements that are left over from before the Super City formed.
Businesses haven't been paying anything extra to receive this ratepayer-funded service.
“All Auckland ratepayers are funding this service to the tune of $370,000 each year, yet only a small number of businesses are benefitting,” says Councillor Ross Clow, chairperson of the Finance and Performance Committee.
“This was a matter of ensuring everyone is paying a fair share of rates for services they receive.”
Up to businesses to find an alternative
Businesses in the affected areas were sent a letter in early March letting them about the proposal and how to provide feedback on the Annual Budget.
The council’s policy is to provide services for domestic quantities of waste and recycling only and rates, including the waste management targeted rate, are priced to reflect this. Businesses can have a larger bin if the standard 240 litre bin isn’t large enough.
“Businesses in these areas will need to find a private recycler to deal with paper and cardboard generated through commercial activities, just as businesses in other parts of Auckland already do,” says Councillor Penny Hulse, who chairs the Environment and Community Committee.
Giving businesses time to make arrangements
Usually changes agreed in the Annual Budget would come into effect on 1 July, however, to give affected businesses more time to find alternatives, Auckland Council will continue to collect paper and cardboard in these areas until 28 July.
Auckland Council’s waste planning manager, Parul Sood, says the Waste Solutions team will be writing to the affected property owners and their commercial tenants to advise them of the changes.
“We want to ensure that affected businesses have enough time to make new arrangements for their cardboard collection and we hope that extending the service by a month will help with this,” she says.
