A 194-home retirement village in Takanini is the first large-scale multi-unit dwelling in Auckland to sign up for Auckland Council’s food waste collection, which has recently rolled out across the former Papakura Council area.
Metlifecare’s Longford Park Village, which has 144 independent residential units and 50 serviced apartments, received food waste bins and caddies to collect scraps, which are then picked up by council and turned into compost.
The village currently also uses council's recycling collection services.
It is expected that the move to collect food waste could reduce the number of refuse bins needed by up to half, saving the facility money as well as making it more environmentally friendly.
A welcome addition
Auckland Council Waste Solutions has been working closely with the village’s maintenance manager John King to ensure the service is adapted for the multi-unit dwelling and is easy for residents to use.
King says the new service will be a welcome addition at the village.
“A lot of residents here are highly environmentally aware,” he says. “Feedback so far has been really good and residents are really positive about their chance to use the service.”
Adapting for the future
Ian Stupple, General Manager Waste Solutions, says it is encouraging seeing this service taken up by such a large-scale facility from the outset of collections in the area.
“The future of housing in Auckland will see more multi-unit dwellings being built,” he says.
“We are looking forward to working closely with other multi-unit dwellings in the future to ensure we’re able to provide this service to all types of home.
“There are multiple benefits for both the residents and managers or body corporates of these dwellings, not least being savings made on refuse collections as the volume of waste can be dramatically decreased.
“We also know residents in apartments or units are often the least likely to be able to compost, so this service will provide an easy way for them to reduce waste and help the environment.”
Aucklanders have had their say
Auckland’s food waste collection was consulted on as part of both the Auckland Plan 2050 refresh and the Draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan 2018.
Feedback is currently being analysed. Read the full consultation document
