Auckland Goes Green… But Not Us

Across Auckland’s urban suburbs, green-lidded food scrap bins now sit proudly outside homes each week. Since 2023, Auckland Council has rolled out its ambitious food scraps collection service, giving most households a simple, sustainable way to divert food waste from landfill. Over 440,000 bins have been delivered, and nine million kilograms of food waste have already been sent to Auckland’s state-of-the-art processing facility, where scraps are converted into renewable energy and fertiliser.

But here on the Matakana Coast and in neighbouring Warkworth, Snells Beach, Leigh, Wellsford, and the wider Mahurangi area there’s no green bin in sight. We’ve been left out of the service entirely.

Why We Miss Out

Auckland Council’s position is clear: the food scraps service applies only to properties within the “urban boundary” set by the Auckland Unitary Plan. Matakana and surrounding settlements, according to the Council, are classified as “rural,” and therefore not included. The Council’s assumption? That rural residents already compost, have chickens, or manage food waste themselves. But locals know that’s far from reality. For many busy families, composting just isn’t practical. Small urban-style sections, lifestyle blocks without established systems, or residents living in rented properties all make home composting challenging.

What We’re Left With

For now, residents outside the service zone have three choices:

1. Compost at home using bins, worm farms, or bokashi systems.
2. Drop scraps at community compost hubs (though these are limited in Rodney).
3. Throw them in the general rubbish where, sadly, they’ll end up in landfill.

For many, the third option is the easiest. That means tonnes of food waste from Matakana and surrounding areas will continue contributing to methane emissions, undermining Auckland Council’s wider environmental goals.

Options for green waste disposal:

• Community Recycling Centre:
• Take your green waste to the Warkworth Community Recycling Centre at 55 Lawrie Road, which accepts green waste for drop-off and offers a collection service. You can find their opening hours and details on the Auckland Council website. 

• Transfer Station:
• The Warkworth Re:Sort transfer station, operated by Northland Waste, also accepts green waste for drop-off from households and businesses in the Warkworth area. 

• Private Services:
• For a cost, you can also call a private garden company to collect your green waste, as mentioned by Crewcut Lawn & Garden. 

A Growing Sense of Frustration

Local residents are beginning to ask hard questions:

• Why do we pay the same rates as Aucklanders enjoying the convenience of weekly food scrap collections but receive fewer services?
• Why wasn’t the rollout designed to include a solution for smaller communities like ours?
• If the Council expects everyone to compost, where is the funding for workshops, bins, or shared facilities?

“It feels like we’ve been forgotten,” says one Leigh resident. “We want to do the right thing, but without proper infrastructure, it’s unrealistic to expect every household to start composting overnight.”

One Bin Missing - And One Step Behind

The irony is that Auckland Council’s own waste strategy aims for zero food waste to landfill by 2030. Yet entire communities like ours are excluded from the very system designed to make that happen.

In effect, we’re “one bin missing” excluded from a citywide solution despite sharing the same regional goals and responsibilities.

Where To From Here?

If Matakana, Warkworth, and our neighbouring communities are to catch up, two things need to happen:

1. Council transparency - We need clarity on why we’ve been excluded and when we might be included.
2. Community-led solutions - If the service isn’t coming soon, locals need support to develop shared compost hubs, workshops, and funding for home systems.

Until then, the Matakana Coast remains an environmental outlier in Auckland’s big green plan a community doing its best without the tools the rest of the city now takes for granted.

Call to Action

Have your say. Share your thoughts with Auckland Council via https://akhaveyoursay.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/or contact Rodney’s elected representatives. The more voices they hear, the better the chance we have of being included in future upgrades.