John Tamihere will bring back free inorganic collections and keep the weekly rubbish collection cycle under his Waste & Energy Policy when he wins the Auckland mayoralty.

The current mayor, who has already binned the household inorganic pickups, also plans to replace the once a week rubbish collection to once a fortnight. Goff also plans to introduce a tax where households are charged up to $50 per year to deposit their food scraps in buckets.

Tamihere said Goff’s initiatives had no merit and would cause major health hazards.

Changing household rubbish collections from seven days to a 14 day pick up, he said, would create major rat and rodent infestation, and increase illegal rubbish dumping.

“If these are allowed to happen, it will be even tougher for those on low and medium incomes, and just add stress to families already under major stress levels,” Tamihere said.

“If you miss one week, the amount of rubbish built up around homes will cause health risks and invite rats and bugs that thrive in those surroundings. It’s absolutely ridiculous to inflict that type of silly strategy on Auckland citizens.”

Tamihere said he would also make it a priority to investigate 21st century technology, where waste can be recycled into energy using a gasification process. He would entertain a private public partnership model to bid for that contract, which are used in major overseas cities.

“These facilities are already in play in places like Korea, Los Angeles and other big jurisdictions around the world,” he said. “We live in an age where waste disposal does not translate to emissions.”

Dropping landfill requirements will also have knock on effects, such as heavy haulage and reduction of our carbon footprint. A prime example of a massive impact of this quality will be on the notified Dome Valley landfill.

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