From July 1, residents whose collection day is on a Thursday can begin to put their bins out as part of the Western Bay of Plenty District Council's new kerbside rubbish and recycling collection service.

Tauranga City Council's new kerbside collection service is also starting this Thursday.

Households are encouraged to become familiar with what can and can't go in the recycling, food scraps, glass and rubbish bins; and when the new services start for them.

In the Tauranga City Council region, to find out what week is rubbish collection week and what week is recycling collection week for your street, look on the side your bins and see what week you are - Week 1 or Week 2, then check out the collection calendar in the brochure that was delivered inside your food scraps bin, which is inside the rubbish wheelie bin. The collection day for your street and suburb remains the same as it always has been.

There's a collection calendar tool on the TCC website to make this easier and a short video about using your food scraps bin and tips for recycling better. If you've misplaced your hard copy collection calendar, you can download one from the TCC website.

Council Sustainability and Waste manager Sam Fellows hopes the new service will prompt people to think more about how to reduce their waste, and that recycling and using their food scraps bin would become 'second nature” soon enough.

'The new kerbside collection is a more convenient and sustainable solution for our community and for our environment as a whole,” he says.

'If we all make small changes, together we can make a big difference to the amount of household waste sent to landfill.”

The new service includes a weekly food scraps collection, which aims to reduce the amount of food that ends up in landfill when it could be composted. Currently, 33 per cent of Tauranga's household waste sent to landfill is food scraps.

'When food ends up in landfill, it rots without oxygen and releases methane, a gas that's harmful to our environment and contributes to climate change. By using the food scraps bin for your leftover food, fruit and vegetables, meat, fish and bones, egg and seafood shells, we can reduce the amount of food we send to landfill and in turn reduce the cost to our environment,” says Sam.

'Using your new weekly food scraps bin and fortnightly recycling collection service will also free up space in your rubbish bin for the stuff that can't be reused, recycled or composted.”

In addition to recycling paper, cardboard, tin, cans and plastics numbered 1 and 2, the new kerbside collection service means you can now recycle plastic bottles and containers numbered 5.

'We know some people have expressed concerns that the fortnightly rubbish collections may not be enough for their household, or the bin is too big for the amount of rubbish they generate.

'After the first year of the service, households can change the size of their rubbish and recycling bins – with smaller bins costing less than larger bins. Feedback from other councils is that it's best to roll out the service with the standard size bins for the first year, before introducing the different bin size option and costs.

'The 140L rubbish bin fits the equivalent of two standard council rubbish bags, so once food scraps and recycling are separated, the fortnightly rubbish collection should be enough. But for those who constantly have too much rubbish, they can take generic 60L bags of rubbish to the transfer station for a fee of $3.50.”

Almost 70 per cent of the household waste sent to landfill could be recycled or composted.

The new rates-funded service aims to halve the amount of household waste Tauranga residents send to landfill by 2028.

Tauranga City Council's new kerbside collection service starts from 1 July.

Western Bay of Plenty

Across the Western BOP, nearly 17,500 eligible households have received new rubbish, recycling, glass and food scraps bins, 62,000 in total, ahead of this week's first collections.

WBOP Council's deputy CEO and group manager Infrastructure Services, Gary Allis says Thursday marks an important step forward in waste minimisation for the District, making it easier for all households to participate in waste reduction, resulting in less household waste going to landfill.

WBOP say the new rates-funded service is designed to increase the amount of material diverted from landfill by about 60 per cent – around 1800 tonnes a year.

On average, each household District-wide produces about 640kg of waste per year – 380kg of this could be recycled.

The advice is for bins to go out on the kerb by 7am on your collection day with lids closed and bins or glass crates not overfilled.

'If you're putting out your red lid rubbish bin make sure a pay-as-you-throw tag is attached by looping it through the two handles.

'Once your bins have been emptied we'd encourage you to put the bins back inside your property as soon as you can. That way we can continue to keep our streets clean and clear.”

If bins were not emptied it either had no PAYT tag attached or it may have incorrect items in it.

Use the online item search finder to learn what goes in each bin. A mobile Kerbside Coach will be checking bins to help and educate customers in this regard.

WBOP also advise that if your current provider hasn't contacted you about removing their bins you should might want to get in touch with them to arrange this.

There will be no green bag collections after June 30. You can dispose of any excess pre-paid green bags full or empty, at our recycling centres during normal opening hours until the end of August.

A $3.95 pay per pick-up for general rubbish is additional.

The $3.95 per pick-up for general rubbish is a cost only charged when people attach a pre-paid pay-as-you-throw tag to their red lid rubbish bin's two handles. This service is available each week.

Pay-as-you-throw tags can now be purchased from Council's library and service centres and other retailers. For a full list visit www.kerbsidecollective.co.nz/payt

Collection days (for Western Bay of Plenty)

Only Kaimai and Te Puke (part) residents are to put their bins out this Thursday July 1, as this is their scheduled collection day.

The following table outlines when residents are to put their bins out in the opening, and subsequent, weeks of the new service.

If unsure of a collection day for the new service, residents can find their collection day printed on the side of their red lid rubbish bin or yellow lid recycling bin.

Residents will also find their recycling week on these bins. An information brochure and 12-month collection calendar can be found inside their blue glass crate or food scraps bin.

Alternatively, residents can download the Antenno app to receive weekly reminders on which bins to put out. It's free to download on your phone from the App Store or Google Play.