Name:
Mark
Date Submitted
2021-04-19 16:14:34
Do you think our Waste Minimisation and Management Plan (WMMP) is on the right track?
No
Do you agree with our proposal to adopt a zero waste attitude across the district by 2038?
Yes
Do you have any further comments on the WMMP?
I have said ‘No’ above because there is no ‘Partially Agree’ option.
There is a list of statements/goals and an action plan but no real indication of what the relative priorities are. It basically says: "We are going to do some stuff" without really explaining what the most important things are to focus on.
If around a third of waste is from households, then about two thirds of waste is not from households and is presumably from commercial/industrial sources? The WMS and the LTP however seem to focus mainly on kerbside collection and waste generated from residential areas.
Lobbing: I agree that lobbying central government is required. There is no mention in your action plan of seeking greater regulation of plastic packaging (to reduce the amount of plastics that cannot be recycled) or seeking government investment in providing more domestic recycling facilities.
Education: Council does not appear to be doing much to educate the public about waste minimisation methods. Other Councils run waste minimisation workshops and subsidise waste free living workshops. You could perhaps offer incentives to help people get set up to compost, bokashi or worm farm. Education should perhaps be a higher priority and be higher up the list of actions than Nos. 13 & 16 where it currently sits (assuming this is in order of priority).
Incentives: The current ‘user pays’ bag system is the only real incentive to minimise waste. The main issue I have with the current system is the plastic bags. I would much rather have a re-useable wheelie bin than single use plastic bags. The only advantage to the current plastic bag system is that it is a ‘user pays’ system and we could save money if we didn’t produce a lot of waste. As a family we often don’t fill a rubbish bag a week. We turn our food waste into compostable material using a bokashi system which reduces waste a lot. If we are to pay a flat rate for kerbsite collection where is the incentive to minimise waste?
Innovation: If you provide wheelie bins surely these could be fitted with a bar code, QR code or microchip that can be scanned upon collection so that we only pay for the waste we generate? This would be a much fairer system and would encourage people to minimise waste.
Food scrap bins: I think education and support should be a higher priority than food scraps bins in our District. I can see a need for them in high density city environments where people live in apartments or have very small sections but our District is predominantly rural and most people living in our towns have a bit of land around them and should be able to do composting, bokashi or similar to deal with their food waste. You could perhaps offer incentives to help people get set up to compost, bokashi or worm farm. If a food scraps system is implemented it should be a user pays system so that those of us who already deal with our food waste responsibly are not penalised.
There is a list of statements/goals and an action plan but no real indication of what the relative priorities are. It basically says: "We are going to do some stuff" without really explaining what the most important things are to focus on.
If around a third of waste is from households, then about two thirds of waste is not from households and is presumably from commercial/industrial sources? The WMS and the LTP however seem to focus mainly on kerbside collection and waste generated from residential areas.
Lobbing: I agree that lobbying central government is required. There is no mention in your action plan of seeking greater regulation of plastic packaging (to reduce the amount of plastics that cannot be recycled) or seeking government investment in providing more domestic recycling facilities.
Education: Council does not appear to be doing much to educate the public about waste minimisation methods. Other Councils run waste minimisation workshops and subsidise waste free living workshops. You could perhaps offer incentives to help people get set up to compost, bokashi or worm farm. Education should perhaps be a higher priority and be higher up the list of actions than Nos. 13 & 16 where it currently sits (assuming this is in order of priority).
Incentives: The current ‘user pays’ bag system is the only real incentive to minimise waste. The main issue I have with the current system is the plastic bags. I would much rather have a re-useable wheelie bin than single use plastic bags. The only advantage to the current plastic bag system is that it is a ‘user pays’ system and we could save money if we didn’t produce a lot of waste. As a family we often don’t fill a rubbish bag a week. We turn our food waste into compostable material using a bokashi system which reduces waste a lot. If we are to pay a flat rate for kerbsite collection where is the incentive to minimise waste?
Innovation: If you provide wheelie bins surely these could be fitted with a bar code, QR code or microchip that can be scanned upon collection so that we only pay for the waste we generate? This would be a much fairer system and would encourage people to minimise waste.
Food scrap bins: I think education and support should be a higher priority than food scraps bins in our District. I can see a need for them in high density city environments where people live in apartments or have very small sections but our District is predominantly rural and most people living in our towns have a bit of land around them and should be able to do composting, bokashi or similar to deal with their food waste. You could perhaps offer incentives to help people get set up to compost, bokashi or worm farm. If a food scraps system is implemented it should be a user pays system so that those of us who already deal with our food waste responsibly are not penalised.
