Let’s be less rubbish about waste – have your say pronto!
This one almost got away on us: the Wellington Regional Waste Management and Minimisation Plan needs your shove – closing Friday 5pm!
There’s a lot of good intention in there and it’s badly needed.
We are a bit rubbish about waste in New Zealand, including Wellington region. At the Southern Landfill, which has probably the most sophisticated set of services for diverting waste away from it, almost 20% of what we send there should’ve been recycled or otherwise diverted. Daaaammn. We’re now trying to stack rubbish tips on older rubbish tips, but at this rate our children are going to have to decide: which nice valley are we going to fill up with our rubbish?
There are so many good reasons to get better at waste (see Read more) so you’d hope we’re going to get our act together a bit more.
The niftily titled Less Waste Greater Place is a good start.
All eight territorial authorities (local councils) in the Wellington region have joined forces in this regional initiative, plus each one has done a Local Action Plan – list on this page – which you can call out in a submission, or you can go for the overall document.
Hot takes and submission guidance
Overall a decent start but like anything it will need a good shove from The Public – that’s you! – for councillors to be willing to do more than have a nice document.
Tip: the web design is a bit iffy – things that look like buttons aren’t. And the WMMP document is a 64-page PDF on auto download, so watch out if you’re looking on your phone and low on data! (Bad practice for accessible information, guys, do better!)
Page 36 helpfully summarises how the actions in the WWMP will address the barriers to being better with waste. It’s pretty telling: there’s a lot of what boils down to “a handful of dedicated, underfunded public servants trying to push at a container-ship of existing practice”.
So, if nothing else, a submission with a general-purpose “I want to see us doing better and I know it’ll cost, let’s do it” will be helpful. As always, CCing it to some of your local councillors will get it on their radar too.
Image credits:
- tip – Kevin Stent | Stuff
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