A Dunedin City Council working party began considering the matter this week, and will have to decide, among other things, how to persuade people using bins to reduce their waste, something that paying for the black bags used at the moment was designed to do.
The council began canvassing public opinion on a host of rubbish collection and recycling options for the city in October last year.
Council staff were amazed at the time by the response, with 9402 completed postal surveys eventually returned, a sharp contrast in numbers compared with the response to a similar survey in 2002, which received only about 800 replies.
As well as the surveys, there was a telephone survey of 300 people, designed to give the council another dimension of feedback, and add to the results from the mail-out survey.
Council infrastructure services committee chairman Cr Andrew Noone said there was support for wheelie bins, but the council had to consider issues like the geography of the city and whether wheelie bins would suit all households.
"People want to recycle more - we want to get in behind that."
But the council would have to discuss the matter with contractors to see if they were flexible enough to provide different services in different areas.
An issue with the collection of organic waste was that some people had sections large enough for them to recycle at home and would not want a service.
"People who have no room at home would embrace it."
One possibility was having community centres for organic waste collection and recycling in areas that needed them.
Cr Noone said any changes to the system would cost money.
Kerbside collection and purchase of bags cost an average of $110 a year per household.
"If we increase the size of the bins, clearly the price will go up.
"There's a mandate there to get on with it.
"We need to decide what's affordable."
Following the working party's discussion, a report will go to the infrastructure services committee on July 20.
