Wastebusters to partner with Waste Management NZ in new QLDC contract

The following media release has just been posted by the Queenstown Lakes District Council.

"QLDC Mayor Jim Boult said today the new district-wide solid waste services contract has been awarded to Waste Management New Zealand Ltd, who will partner with local group Wastebusters to deliver a vastly improved service to the community.

“Our communities care deeply about their environment and we’re listening to the feedback that we need to make improvements to the way we manage waste.  This contract and what it will deliver for our community, alongside our work implementing the Waste Minimisation and Management Plan is a reflection of that,” Mayor Boult said.

The new contract would see the introduction of a new three-bin system district wide, along with a number of environmentally friendly solutions to ensure a smarter service. 

“From July next year, we’ll be saying goodbye to the plastic blue bags and black crates.  In their place residents will have three wheelie-bins.  One smaller 140l bin for waste to landfill, a 140l bin for glass recycling and a larger 240l bin for mixed recyclables,” Mayor Boult said.

Three bins for each household will be part of the new waste system

“Not only that, we’ll see some clever solutions such as electronic tagging of wheelie bins so we can keep track of what bin belongs where, cameras to monitor and help reduce contamination and a collection day app so you can easily keep track of what day to put your bin out,” he said.

“And in a first for New Zealand, our contractors will be collecting waste from public litter bins using electric bikes,” he said.  

Waste Management Managing Director, Tom Nickels said the company is pleased to partner with the Council to support achievement of its sustainability vision.

“We are proud to have been selected by Council through a robust and vigorous process. Along with Wastebusters, we are fully committed to achieving the Council’s goals and firmly believe the decision will be a step change for residential waste services in the district, setting a new benchmark for other communities across NZ,” Mr Nickels said.

“Our Waste Management team will provide high quality residential waste and recycling collection services, effective recycling processing and easy to use disposal and resource recovery facilities. Alongside these services, the Wastebusters team will bring their local experience and expertise to provide community based education and resource recovery services,” he said.

“We are excited by the challenge of making Council’s sustainability vision happen, and looking forward to bringing world-class services and world-leading innovations to the district in mid-2019,” he said.

Wastebusters General Manager Sue Coutts said partnering with Waste Management allows both organisations to focus on what they do best.

“We feel confident that we can achieve more for our community by working together and we think the partnership will fast track our district’s progress towards zero waste,” Ms Coutts said.

Wastebusters will team up with Waste Management NZ under the new QLDC contract.

“We're stoked that this contract expands our reach and gives us long-term security for our Education for Sustainability work in schools and the Dr Compost home-composting project,” she said

"We get so much positive feedback from people who have had advice from Dr Compost or worked with our Enviroschools facilitators, and demand for their help is growing every year as more people look to reduce their waste."

“We are looking forward to expanding our role in zero waste education across the district so we can support our community to divert more now and reduce waste over time," she said.

Mayor Boult said more details on how the new contract services would be rolled out to the community would be available soon.

“In the meantime I encourage everyone to start thinking about how they manage their waste at home to get ready for the change in service next year,” he said.