Stephen Selwood

Tauranga's new kerbside collection service was designed to reduce the unnecessary waste we have been sending to landfill.

Based on the waste volumes collected in the first four weeks, it looks like we are on our way to becoming a more sustainable city.

We'll have a better idea of what we are achieving after our next waste audit later this year, but the early results look promising, with more than 1000 tonnes of material collected for recycling or composting in July, compared to just more than 900 tonnes of waste sent to landfill.

Most of the 280 tonnes of food waste collected would have gone to landfill if the new system had not been implemented, and there has also been a substantial increase in overall recycling volumes.

If we maintain that over a whole year, that could see up to 9000 tonnes of what was formerly waste being recycled or composted. To put that into a visual context, that's the equivalent of around 600 truckloads of material, which would fill more than three Olympic swimming pools.

So how does that reduce our carbon emissions? For a start, the new system is much more efficient than the former, privately-run services. Less trucks on the road means less exhaust emissions.

But the big gain comes from the removal of much of our food waste from our general rubbish. Food waste rotting in a landfill is a significant methane producer, and reducing methane emissions is one of the country's key climate change targets.

The Climate Change Commission recommends that biogenic methane emissions from waste be reduced by at least 40 per cent by 2035, and the step we have taken to compost much of the city's household food waste will help us to achieve that goal.

Before the new kerbside service started, we were sending 200kgs of waste to landfill each year for every resident – one of the worst per capita waste rates in the country.

Our overall aim is to halve that figure by 2028. We all have a role to play in achieving that, so check-out the tips on the council's website to see how you can help.