We have made use of the WBOP recycling facility since its inception in 2005, when we were supplied with a small green bin and paid an annual fee of $15.

With the advent of the larger wheelie bins that fee, understandably, increased substantially and has continued to rise by an average of about 5 per cent ever since, in spite of the fact that Waste Management stopped collecting glass in February last year.

We have recently received a tax invoice from them for $144.08 - a whopping 68 per cent increase! We contacted WBOPDC and registered our dismay; the response indicated that they, too, were disappointed in the present contractor's service, and would be instigating their own kerbside model in July 2021. It is unfortunate that it will take so long.

Until that time, we (and our neighbours) shall be operating our own recycling through the transfer station in Maleme St.

Sadly, we suspect that there will be many who cease recycling altogether and send everything to the landfill.

Peter and Judith Malcolm, Te Puna