How food scrap bins are working out for Aucklanders

Thousands of tonnes of food scraps have been saved from going into landfill in the two years since Auckland households received their council food scrap bins.

Some residents told First Up they found the bin easy to use, while others believed it was not for them.

Auckland Council rolled out food scrap bins for 465,000 households in April 2023.

One of the recipients was Jenni Smith, who rents a small unit in New Lynn.

She said she now separated her food waste from general rubbish thanks to the council bin.

"Well, because I'm renting it depending on the space, it can be kind of tricky to have your own compost area, so I quite enjoy having the little bin that way.

"[It's] because the the government provided the bin that I'm able to do this and I'm doing my part in the environment."

Winnie Charlesworth lived in Titirangi - and like Smith - using the bin had helped her realise how much of their household's general waste used to be made up of food scraps.

"We find it really good. It has reduced almost to nothing what we put in our actual rubbish because we now find that it was probably all fruit scraps or, dead flowers or chicken bones and things like that.

"It is a bit small. We could even do with the second one, I think."

She said the food scraps bins should be rolled out across the country.

Earlier in March, Whanganui district councillors voted to dump plans for a food scrap collection.

It came after the government reversed plans in its National Waste Strategy, to make food scrap collection compulsory for all councils.

Auckland Council general manager of waste solutions Justine Haves said introducing the bins had reduced kerbside rubbish going to landfill by 10 percent per capita.

"Since April 2023, Auckland has have saved over 40 million kilograms of food scraps from landfills, so that equates to an equivalent of approximately 26,000 tonnes of harmful greenhouse gas emissions not being created.

"And that's similar to taking approximately 7000 cars off Aucklands Road, or the equivalent of planting about 700,000 trees."

Auckland Council had temporarily halted food scrap collections in parts of Birkdale, after a single male Oriental fruit fly was found in the area.

But some others in Tamaki Makaurau were choosing not to put their bins out.

Debra, who lived in Glen Eden, said she gave up on the bin because of maggots.

"We used it for a month thinking, 'okay let's try it out'.

"No matter how clean you keep it and you change the bag you get maggots.

"To us it's just been a complete waste and we have to pay for it."

Auckland Council recommended using pink compostable liners inside the bin.

But Debra said those were not sturdy enough.

"They're very flimsy. You're putting in fruit and stuff like that, and the juices go through.

"I'd rather just put [food scraps] in the bin."

It was not just those who have given up on the bin who felt the council bags were flimsy.

Aphrodite used her bin regularly, but she preferred buying her own bags to prevent spills and leakage.

"I didn't like the little pink ones because they were too little.

"Sometimes only takes two days and it eats through that plastic, so I had to put another bag on top of bin and turn it over to empty it. And so I started buying the more expensive green coloured ones."

Haves said it was best to change the liners on a regular basis.

"The bin liners are made from cornstarch and do not contain any plastic, so that supports them being certified as compostable for home compost and it does mean that we don't have plastic contamination.

"In order to get around them not being sturdy enough. We do recommend that as people are regularly using their food scraps bins that changing those bin liners a little more frequently can help to prevent spills."

The annual rates charge for the food scraps collection service was $81.19 per property.

Angela said she was composting well before council introduced the food scraps bin and she did not like the idea of having a charge included in her rates

"It's a bit of a sham that we're paying for something that we're not using, and just the minute it happened, I said 'I'm not giving council stuff that's useful to me'.

"I have a vegetable garden and vegetable food scraps valuable to me to make compost with. So I've got chickens and they scratch through it first take out anything they want to eat and the rest goes in the compost bins and I compost it and a year later it goes into the ground and I grow a vegetables.

"It's gold."

She said council should encourage people to start composting where possible.

Mark Harvey also has his own composting system.

He said the food scrap bins were a good solution, but council needed to do more to reduce rubbish going to landfill.

"I can see some really great things about the system and this is a good start.

"I think next steps could be supporting and setting up more local hubs of of where there's more circular based systems of food scraps that also go into food production and food growth."

Auckland Council recently carried out a Waste Services Customer Experience Survey and results showed most users were satisfied with the service.

Haves said the results were quite pleasing.

"Seventy-eight per cent of respondents are satisfied with the food scrap server, so it's really encouraging. Eight percent were dissatisfied and the remainder were neutral."

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