Background of this Project

The amount of waste being produced in the Rotorua district has increased by 28 per cent during the past three years. At the same time, the cost of sending waste to landfill has increased due to central government landfill levies and changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Organic waste makes up more than 60 per cent of Rotorua’s household waste, which could be diverted from landfill. The average household in Rotorua creates about 350kg of organic waste every year, totalling about 10,000 tonnes per year across the district. This food and garden waste has the potential to be processed, to significantly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced from the district’s waste.

In May/June 2022, Council consulted on various options to achieve this. Submissions favoured a mixed kerbside collection service of both food and garden green waste, ahead of four other options. The preferred option also included collection of general waste (red-lid bins) moving to a fortnightly schedule because the residual waste per household would decrease by about 60 per cent due to introducing FOGO collection.

Council approved the introduction of a food organic and green organic waste collection service (FOGO) in July 2024 with a start date of 1 July 2026. Council had previously signalled its intention to introduce kerbside organic waste collection in the Long-term Plan 2021-24, and Waste Management and Minimisation Plan 2022-2028.

Across the district, community consultation in 2022 attracted 377 submissions with 89 per cent of respondents supporting an organics/green diversion option. However, it has been suggested that the Mamaku and Ōkāreka areas may not wish to be included in the new collection as residents have alternative methods of processing organic food and green waste such as composting.