Trade Waste changes proposed

A proposed change to how Dunedin charges for dealing with trade waste is being put to affected businesses for informal consultation this month.
The Council’s Finance and Strategy Committee in September this year decided to fully implement its Trade Waste Bylaw 2008, by suggesting changes to how trade waste is consented for and charged, ensuring businesses that produce it are managing their waste and paying fairly for its treatment.
Trade waste is any liquid waste discharged to a sewer from a business that is not the same as that discharged from a home. If not managed effectively, trade waste can cause risks to people and the environment, as well as increasing operational costs.
The Committee is seeking a way to ensure that trade waste customers pay their proportion of waste treatment and disposal costs, as well as appropriately managing public health and safety and environmental risks.
Currently, only 23 large users are charged for trade waste disposal, and they are paying a disproportionate amount of the total costs.
The proposed new regime would involve categorising all trade waste customers into three types, from heavy users who would require consent and would pay a separate trade waste cost and monitoring charges on top of any usual drainage rates, to a second tier who would require consent and possibly monitoring charges on top of their drainage rates. The third category of low dischargers would remain the same as presently.
About 90 customers are expected to be in the first category, with about 700 in the second and 500 in the third. The 23 existing customers, who will fall in Category A, will almost all have a significant decrease in their trade waste costs.
Any business or organisation affected by the changes is being written to by the DCC to explain the effects and offer an opportunity to give feedback.
Factoring into the changes, the Council is also proposing to alter the proportion of drainage rates paid by businesses. All ratepayers pay drainage rates, but currently trade waste customers are paying 5% of the total. That would drop to 2% in the proposals, and the remaining 3% would transfer to non-residential customers.
The changes are being proposed to take place from next year's budget. As well as the informal consultation underway at present, affected businesses and ratepayers will be able to have their say as part of next year's annual plan process.