Survey to gauge views on wheelie bin service improvements

Some Christchurch residents are going to be surveyed to understand their kerbside service requirements and whether they’d be interested in a user-pays charging system based on the size of their bins.

The kerbside survey is part of the wider Life in Christchurch survey, going out today to 16,000 residents. 

“The information collected through the survey will help us get an understanding of people’s needs for both larger or smaller bins and understand how we should charge for these services,’’ says Christchurch City Council Resource Recovery Manager Ross Trotter.

“We’re looking to improve how we deliver our waste services. One thing we will be exploring is how we can respond to residents’ calls for more choice in the size of bins they have, while still meeting our goal of changing our throw-away culture and reducing the amount of waste being disposed to landfill.

“At the moment every entitled household gets a standard size set of bins which they pay for through their rates. One of the things we want to test through our online survey is whether people would prefer an element of their waste rates bill to be based on a user-pays system. This would mean they could choose the size of their red, yellow and green bin,’’ Mr Trotter says.

“This survey is just about getting a snapshot of public sentiment and gathering information that will help us as we work through the review process.

"If the Council, as part of the waste services review, takes up the opportunity to provide an enhanced kerbside collection service and charge for it on a user-pays basis, residents will be consulted later in the year. All Christchurch residents would have the opportunity to share their views at that time,'' Mr Trotter says.