Auckland council is looking at scrapping a rubbish bin tag scheme that was supposed to reduce weekly waste.
It is also looking at cutting the weekly collection of household rubbish bins from weekly to fortnightly, at some point in the future.
Through March the council is taking feedback on scrapping its rubbish bin tag scheme, which was supposed to reduce waste. It has applied to the North Shore, West Auckland and Papakura.
The "pay as you throw" trial means residents on the North Shore, West Auckland and Papakura have to buy bins tags and attach them to their wheelies for weekly collection.
The tag price depends on the bin size, with residents able to choose between 80L, 120L and 240L bins.
In other suburbs the cost of weekly rubbish pick up is included in the rates.
The trial was supposed to encourage people to bin less so they pay less, but it turns out the scheme wasnt a cheap deal at all.
General Manager of Waste Solutions Parul Sood told Checkpoint the suburbs affected by the scheme produced more or less the same amount of waste as suburbs with ratepayer funded rubbish collection.
Sood said the scheme may have been more successful if all residents were subject to the waste output charges.
"What they found overseas is that the polluter pays model sits quite differently within the context, I live in Waitakere so I can choose to be on the council's tax service which is really getting me to think about what I'm putting out.'... but then I can also go to a private operator and get a subscription service which then means my neighbour can put out the same amount every week as much as they want for a fixed rate, so that doesn't quite affect their behaviour," she said.
She said similar schemes overseas that implemented higher collection fees had proven to be more effective at reducing people's waste output.
One idea waste management services were reviewing was the introduction of weekly collection of specific bins for food scraps, with weekly rubbish and recycling collection then moved to a fortnightly collection cycle.
If this was implemented, Sood said reducing the size of bins available to residents was another option the council were looking at to encourage waste reduction.
"To start with we wouldn't be enforcing [this] because we need to be mindful of different circumstances for different households."
She said the addition of a dedicated food scraps bin would allow residents to fit more in their rubbish bin, even if the available sizes are reduced.
The decision to scrap the rubbish bin tag scheme is currently at a proposal stage, with public consultation open from 28 February until 28 March.
