Greener rubbish collection for Lower Hutt

Lower Hutt residents will get electric rubbish and recycling trucks from July 1 next year.

It’s part of the Hutt City Council’s effort to provide a fully electric collection service in 2024, aiming to be one of the first New Zealand councils to do so.

Half the collection fleet will be switched over by July 1, 2021, with Waste Management NZ getting the refuse and recycling contract until 2029 after an eight-month tender process, the new service paid from rates.

A single centralised contract will allow a “significant” reduction in collection trucks on the road and allow a move to weekly collection for rubbish and fortnightly for recycling, the council says.

It estimates the 11 EV trucks on the road in July next year will equate to the removal of 957 tonnes of carbon emissions annually and will end the bag collection system.

Waste Management NZ will actively work to reduce recycling contamination, meet key performance targets for customer satisfaction, conduct regular reviews to ensure services keep pace with advances in technology, and pay all contracted staff the Living Wage, the council adds.

“Finally, we will have a fully modernised rubbish collection service, something that our people strongly supported in our consultation,” Lower Hutt mayor Campbell Barry says.

“The new service will be cheaper for the majority of our residents and will increase access for everyone in our city to good quality waste collection.”

Barry says more than 50% of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions are directly attributed to transport. “We need to be more environmentally friendly in our city and introducing EV rubbish and recycling trucks is a significant step forward as we work to reduce our emissions to zero.”

He says modernising collection services, recycling changes and a planned new green waste service will ultimately decrease the amount of rubbish going to landfill.

Waste Management NZ Lower North Island general manager David Howie says more than 100 people work from the company’s Seaview offices and most collection staff live in the Hutt Valley.

“We’re committed to employing locals and this will deliver significant economic benefits to the wider community.”

Lower Hutt ratepayers will be asked to select their bin sizes and let the council know about any accessibility requirements before January 31.

Visit hutt.city/binchanges for more information.