Annual plan and long-term plan amendment consultation

Submissions closed on 02 May 2022, 05:00 PM

Putting food waste into kitchen caddy

Consultation on our Annual Plan and Long-Term Plan 2021-2031 has now closed. If you missed the opportunity to submit please contact the Policy Team at policysubmissions@whanganui.govt.nz

Check out our consultation document(PDF, 7MB).

Introducing kerbside recycling and food waste collections

What are we proposing?

We're proposing to amend our Long-Term Plan 2021-31 to introduce two new kerbside services to residential households. This would start with a kerbside recycling collection from 1 July 2023, followed by a kerbside food waste collection from 1 July 2024.

Only households in the collection areas would pay - that's the Whanganui city urban area and Fordell, Marybank and Mowhanau villages.

Why kerbside recycling?

Whanganui’s one of only a few centres in New Zealand without kerbside recycling. With kerbside we could recycle an estimated extra 800 tonnes a year and make sure we’re doing our bit to look after the environment. Estimated at $2.58 weekly from mid-2023.

Why kerbside food waste?

It’s climate action. When food waste goes in the rubbish it ends up at the dump and puts out greenhouse gases, so why not turn it into compost instead. Some people already compost food scraps at home, but with more people involved we could divert 1,700 tonnes of food waste each year. Estimated at $1.17 weekly from mid-2024.

Right now central government is consulting on its Transforming Waste plan, which is likely to require all councils to provide a kerbside food waste collection in the future, so we're getting ahead of the game.

Annual Plan 2022-23

Each year the council produces an annual plan which sets out how the council’s work will be funded. We calculate the cost of delivering and funding a range of activities, then work out the amount of rates we need to collect.

For the 2022-23 year – even with the general rate of inflation close to 6% – we’ve managed to keep our rates increase to 3.9%, one of the lowest in the region.

Check out our property rating tool to see your current and indicative rates for the next financial year (from 1 July 2022).

The 3.9% increase is for the 2022-23 year so it doesn't include rates for the new kerbside services. The targeted rate for kerbside recycling would start from mid-2023 and the food waste component would be added to the rate from mid-2024.