About 17,000 Papakura residents have been able to use the city’s first food scraps service since a North Shore trial in 2014.
Papakura has a three-bin service, pay as you throw refuse and fortnightly recycling, and the food scrap bins.
About half of Papakura’s residents are using the food scraps service at least once every three weeks.
More than a third use the service every week, and, since its inception in March 2018, it’s estimated 1376 tonnes of kerbside food scraps have been diverted from landfill - about 112 tonnes a month.
Auckland Council’s Environment and Community Committee has been told that represents a 21 per cent reduction in the amount of waste going to landfill from Papakura.
Waste Solutions programme director Parul Sood says a survey last December suggested that with continued education campaigns, participation rates had the potential to increase above 55 per cent.
Auckland Council’s Waste Management and Minimisation Plan aims to establish a residential food scraps collection service across the city, so the results of the scheme in Papakura are being carefully monitored.
It’s estimated that if the Papakura tonnage was applied to the region it would be the equivalent of about 40,000 tonnes a year because staff expect volumes would be up alongside a large education campaign.
Based on roughly 100,000 tonnes of domestic food scraps going to landfill in the region each year, that represents a 40 per cent diversion.
Papakura Local Board chair Brent Catchpole says the bins make a difference.
"Diverting all that food scraps from our tips and turning it into something useful by composting it is great for our environment.
"What we really need now is for more of us to use them."
