Western Bay of Plenty locals are being reminded to put the rubbish out with a correctly fitted pay-as-you-throw tag or expect to keep your waste for another week.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council's Kerbside Collective rubbish and recycling service features a pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) system for rubbish – providing a financial incentive to reducing waste.

The fluorescent orange tags must be attached correctly to red lid rubbish bins before they are put out for collection.

Council's Solid Waste Contract Manager Tony Wilson says there is still some confusion around how to attach the PAYT tags – the most common being attaching the tag through either the red lid handle or the black bin handle, not both.

'Looping the tag through both handles is an important step as it means the tag will break free and fall into the truck and not remain on the handle allowing a resident to use the same tag for another collection.

'Unfortunately, this has become quite regular across the District so we are taking a harder stance on rubbish collection to try and increase compliance levels.

'In the interests of being fair to the rest of our rohe that are paying and using tags correctly for a single use, we'll only be emptying bins with the PAYT tag attached correctly.”

Council's Kerbside Coach, or recycling inspector, will also be helping by turning their attention from ensuring efficient recycling and reduction of unnecessary landfill waste, to incorrectly applied PAYT tags.

Council introduced the PAYT tags last year on 1 July, in line with the new Kerbside Collective service, and the reduction of waste going to landfill since has been sizeable.

'For example, in the first year of Kerbside Collective, Western Bay residents have stopped 3300 tonnes of material from going to landfill,” explains Tony.

'A year later, the rubbish is still coming out for Kerbside Collective – but sometimes, the PAYT tags aren't. We'd really encourage people to get back in the habit of putting these on correctly again or expect the rubbish will not be collected that week.”

Serviced households' recycling, food waste and glass bins are collected on a regular basis. However, the frequency of the red lid rubbish bin being collected is up to the resident. Only when a prepaid tag is attached to the bin will it be collected.

'This prepaid system is a great, financial incentive to cut back on waste. It's not bound by a fixed rate, so you're only paying for what you throw out,” says Tony.

'But, if you want to throw it away, you do have to pay.”

To use a PAYT tag it's as simple as following these steps:

· Purchase a tag from one of the selected stockists

· Attach the PAYT tag to the red rubbish bin by looping through both the red lid handle and black bin handle

· Fasten tag

· Place the red lid rubbish bin on the kerb by 7am alongside other bins ready for collection on your collection day.

The recommended retail price is $3.95 per tag. For more information, or to find a stockist near you, please head to kerbsidecollective.co.nz.