Both Tauranga City and Western Bay of Plenty District councils are experiencing staff shortages as a result of Covid-19.

The shortages are affecting the councils' ability to collect kerbside rubbish as normal.

In Tauranga, people are being asked to dispose of food scraps in the red-lid rubbish bin, for now.

A council spokesperson asks that no food scraps be placed in garden waste bins.

'This is an evolving situation and we appreciate the community's patience and understanding during this trying time.”

Food scraps and glass are to be temporarily removed from kerbside collections in the Western Bay of Plenty.

Neither the food scraps bin or glass crate will be collected from the following dates after several of Western Bay of Plenty District Council's Kerbside Collective drivers either contracted the virus or are close contacts and are following Ministry of Health advice to self-isolate.

Changes to kerbside collections

Food scraps from Thursday, March 3, until further notice

Glass crate from Monday, March 7, until further notice

WBOPDC deputy CEO and group manager infrastructure services, Gary Allis says the reduced service still allows the community to use their yellow lid recycling bin and red lid rubbish bin.

'As always, the health and safety of our community and our staff are our top priority.

'We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and we are working hard to bring these two services back online as soon as possible so we can continue the great job we are doing with our collective waste minimisation effort.”

During this time, you can freeze your food scraps if you have room, use them for compost or in your worm farm, or place them in your red lid rubbish bin.

Glass can be stored, or you can take it to one of the WBOP recycling centres or as a last resort place it in the red lid rubbish bin.

There will also be a change in hours for the Athenree and Katikati recycling centres from Monday, March 7, until further notice.

There are no changes to Te Puke Recycling Centre or Ōmokoroa Greenwaste Centre.

'As Covid-19 cases grow in the region, we are adjusting accordingly to lessen the likelihood and impact of staff shortages and not being able to open these centres to our community,” says Gary.

'We will give you as much notice as possible should things change. We thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we work hard to keep facilities operating.”

If you are unsure which bins you can put out, you can download the Antenno app to receive weekly reminders.

It's free to download on your phone from the App Store or Google Play.