The bins were expected to be delivered to households between August and September.
The service would cover all households and businesses in urban and primarily residential areas of the district.
Green-lid bins would accept all food scraps and garden waste, including lawn clippings, leaves and weeds, and will be collected weekly.
Rubbish (red bin) would move from a weekly to fortnightly collection, alternating with recycling (yellow bin).
The council expects the service to divert about 6000 tonnes of organic waste from landfill each year.
The rollout has been controversial, with a petition of nearly 4600 signatures opposing it presented to the council in March. Key concerns were less frequent rubbish collections, pest issues, and illegal dumping of waste.
In today’s statement, Goodwin said community consultation for the bins began in 2022.
Under the new system, people would have more waste capacity to be collected each week.
The total weekly capacity will increase from 282.5L to 292.5L.
Putting food and garden waste into the new green bins would reduce the need for weekly red bin collections, and households could pay for extra bins if they need more capacity.
The new Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO). Photo / Rotorua Lakes Council
Goodwin said the council wanted to remind the community that landfilling costs continued to increase.
“Costs at the Rotorua South Resource Recovery Park – the former landfill – increased in April due to global fuel/transportation prices, with another increase expected in July due to higher government levies.”
He said there was also limited national space available for landfilling.
“Our local landfill was capped and closed and since 2018 we’ve been transporting waste to Tirohia.
“We all need to take responsibility for the waste we create and how it is managed,” Goodwin said.
Green and organic waste collected in Rotorua will be converted into electricity, heat, biogas and fertiliser at Reporoa’s Ecogas facility.
Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell previously called the FOGO rollout one of the “biggest game-changers” the council could influence.
“We know it’s one of the most environmentally sustainable projects and impacts we can make as a council.”
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