Tauranga City Council

Location: Bay of Plenty
Population: 100,000

Tauranga has traditionally been a summer mecca for New Zealanders but, in recent years its mild winters have drawn domestic tourists year round. 400,000 domestic tourists and 50,000 international visitors visit the region annually. Tourism is worth over $100 million to the region's economy. There is much to attract visitors, including:

- Big game and reef fishing
- Diving
- Surfing and windsurfing
- Charter launches and yachts
- Attractive parks and reserves, walking tracks
- Kilometres of golden beaches
- White water rafting

The city is ideally located for day trips to other centres. The Port of Tauranga is New Zealand's largest export port and third largest importing port (behind Whangarei and Auckland). In the 2003 year the Port of Tauranga handled 7,608,325 tonnes of export cargo (valued at $6,610 million).

In September 2001 Tauranga City Council adopted the joint Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council Waste Management Plan. The vision of that plan is:

'Sustainable waste management that protects the environment for present and future generations by vigorously promoting waste minimisation to achieve a zero waste target by 2015.'

At the time of adopting the Zero Waste target Council was achieving 18% diversion away from disposal, of the waste under its control, by recycling and recovery.

A two hectare composting facility at Te Maunga processes greenwaste from the two transfer stations. The charge for greenwaste is about half that charged for residual waste.

Resource recovery facilities at the Transfer Stations accept a wide range of materials free of charge and a discount system on the fees for residual waste encourages participation in recycling.

Council encourages private enterprise to take part in recycling and recovery. A construction/demolition contractor operates from council land beside the Te Maunga Transfer Station. Kerbside recycling is provided by two companies on a user pays basis.

Council has provided waste minimisation education to schools since 1993.

Council is currently providing a Cleaner Production service to a selection of businesses from the construction, restaurant and charity sectors. A four year programme of Cleaner Production services is being developed in conjunction with the Regional Council.

Council recognises putrescible waste as a high volume and causign environmental harm. Accordingly, Council has implemented a vermicomposting trial in selected households to determine the viability and effectiveness of an ongoing composting programme.

For further information about Tauranga City Zero Waste Management Projects contact Heidi Pettersen, Zero Waste Coordinator at heidip@tauranga.govt.nz  or call 07 577 7000 or check out www.tauranga.govt.nz.