Council To Get Cracking On Waste Minimisation

Invercargill has the worst waste minimisation results in the country, and the council wants Waste Net to get cracking on action plans.

At the Invercargill City Council’s infrastructure meeting yesterday, councillors talked about demanding answers from the city’s household waste service provider.

It has been five years since the council has received any new data on waste minimisation, and many are also frustrated that both Gore and Southland district councils are also not yet onboard with it.

Mayor Nobby Clark said he had attended recent Waste Net meetings and believed the dysfunction with the service lay with the other two councils.

It was stated twice around the table that the Gore District Council hasn’t been doing any recycling for the past five years, and there was frustration that the waste minimisation funding ($700,000) can only be used if the other two councils are on board with it – constantly holding things up.

Mayor Clark said he was disappointed when he asked the new Gore Mayor Ben Bell about the issue and he just ignored him.

“After nine months as Mayor he hasn’t done a thing and now we’re caught up in that.”

Chair Ian Pottinger said the Waste Minimisation Plan (WMP) needed to align with what work was actually being done.

“Otherwise we are breaching our own direction.”

The ICC has been looking at different options for glass collection and decided to put those to Waste Net, and if the other two councils are not on board with it, have requested that the funds should be released.