No 8 wire and "a lump of wood" have been suggested as more environmentally friendly ways of stopping rubbish flying away than plastic in Marlborough.
Solid waste manager Alec McNeil with his crate liner prototype. Photo: Stuff / Brya Ingram
A request to line kerbside recycling crates with bin bags caused Marlborough District councillors to butt heads at a committee meeting last week, with most firmly against introducing plastic to fix a problem that "isn't a big issue".
The committee was so divided on the issue that its chair, Deputy Mayor Nadine Taylor, was left to cast the deciding vote. She abstained so that each councillor could speak on the proposal at the next full council meeting in September.
Council solid waste manager Alec McNeil started the scrap after asking permission to trial clear bin liners at about 125 households over a month, to see if they stopped wind blowing away the bins' contents.
The bags would be made of equal parts recycled and new plastic so could be taken to the resource recovery centre in south Blenheim and, if there was enough demand, recycled.
Councillor Michael Fitzpatrick, who holds the refuse and recycling portfolio, thought the council should be encouraging its residents to use less plastic, not more.
"If we create a bigger bin, then we create more opportunities to store plastic. These things will be jam-packed. Cardboard will rip holes in it just like it does any other plastic," he said.
Councillor Mark Peters agreed plastic "[wasn't] the answer", especially as kerbside litter was not a big issue in Blenheim.
"If this is about stopping something blowing down the road three times a year when it's windy, I'm obviously missing something here, because I cannot and will not support the use of plastic to deal with something that isn't a big issue."
Councillor Brian Dawson said items that were blown from Blenheim recycling crates often disappeared "pretty quickly".
Photo: Stuff / Brya Ingram
Councillors Barbara Faulls, Jamie Arbuckle and Thelma Sowman were unable to vote on the proposal until the meeting next month, but each said they would not support it.
Faulls, who was not eligible for kerbside recycling as she lives in Linkwater, in the Marlborough Sounds, suggested "flippantly" that the council hand out number eight wires.
"Get [residents] to attach it to their fence and ask the people who empty the crates to walk a couple extra paces to lift the recycling out of their loop of number eight wire," Faulls said.
But Marlborough Mayor John Leggett threw his support behind the trial, saying it fitted within the council's budgets and would generate "good feedback" on what it should do next.
Councillor David Oddie, who could not vote on the proposal, but supported it, said the council received complaints each time a southeaster blew through Picton.
The council had prevaricated for more than a decade over whether to replace the crates with wheelie bins to protect recyclables from being picked up by the wind, with the cost of rolling out two a house a regular sticking point.
This year the council agreed wheelie bins would be included in its next kerbside collection contract, set to start in 2024.
But McNeil said wheelie bins were just as susceptible to blowing over in the wind as crates, only with worse results, because they held more waste and were emptied less often.
McNeil hoped liners would be a more effective alternative.
Councillor David Croad, who could not vote on the proposal, thought the trial's $17,000 cost was too high, especially if bin liners ended up being a "short-term fix". Croad did not indicate which way he would vote.
"We could just be issuing a lump of wood and a brick."
Speaking after the meeting, McNeil said he noticed the two main concerns councillors had were the cost of the trial, which could be reduced, and the bags being made of plastic.
"We've vilified plastic to the point now that we think of it as evil. But it's how we handle it that's evil. Some plastic has a function that betters the environment you're in, like this would if it was a containment solution for litter," McNeil said.
If supported, findings from the trial would be reported back to councillors and fed into the next kerbside collection tender. The council planned to publish the tender next year.
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