Carrot for rubbish

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 15, Issue 690, 10 June 1997, Page 10

Carrot for rubbish

The council claims that it is bound by law to minimise the amount of rubbish that is dumped and that is why it adopts the philosophy of user-pays for rubbish collection and disposal. This philosophy is at odds with the wishes of most people in Ohakune and the wider Waimarino community, who believe their council should work to make a tidy town — as clean and tidy as possible, especially given that it is now a tourist town. "Who cares if my neighbours dump 10 times as much rubbish as I do? I just want them to keep the place tidy," is an'often-heard argument. The council' s point that the more rubbish is dumped the more it costs to pick up and dispose of is self-evident. Some argue that they are happy to pay more for a service that gives them what they want. It will be interesting to see how far that argument carries when next year's rate demands are out, with the $200 charges attached. Whether you agree with the user-pays principal with regard to rubbish or not, I believe the council has to start looking at providing a carrot as well as a stick. It is all very well for the council to 'encourage' people to reduce the amount of rubbish they put out by tripling the charges (quadrupling?). But for the average person it is not easy to recycle in this remote district, apart from spreading your grass clippings around the trees. The council must help by providing a recycling service. Waiouru' s worked very well for quite some time and only fell down because on-going education to its transient population was not carried out. At the very least, some information about the recycling options available to Waimarino people now would be helpful. But it needs to be put to people regularly until it becomes habit. What happened to the council' s recycling working party? Was that just lip service to the green vote? Did not that group point out that even a council-subsidised recycling service would be cost-effective in the long term by easiug the pressure on our dumps?