From February 28, every residence in Dunedin will have a 240-litre wheelie bin, or an 80-litre wheelie bin for smaller properties, for non-glass recycling, while existing blue bins will be used for glass only, on alternate weeks.
The cost per household will be $63 a year, a lower cost than the $77 per household that had been estimated.
The Dunedin City Council yesterday announced a group of four companies had won a $24.8 million, seven-year contract.
As part of the contract price, a new resource recovery park would be built near the Green Island landfill to handle the recyclable materials.
The announcement follows extensive public consultation.
Last year, the council identified what was labelled "Option C" as its preferred choice, with black bags retained for rubbish and blue bins for glass, plus a new wheelie bin or a list of alternatives introduced for other recyclables.
During consultation, the council received 623 written submissions on the proposed new service, 40% in support of Option C and 39% wanting the status quo.
Cr Andrew Noone yesterday said the new system followed the council's recycling strategy, which called for more recycling, and less waste to landfill.
"In terms of value for money, this is particularly good," Cr Noone said.
An expanded variety of waste could be put in the new wheelie bin, including polystyrene and foam packaging, cardboard, paper, tins and aluminium cans.
City environment general manager Tony Avery said the problem in the past for glass recycling was contamination of the product from other waste, something the new system should fix.
The glass would be picked up over a 10-day period. One truck would be used to collect the glass, with the one operator on board separating it by colour, then delivering it to the recovery park.
In the past, glass had been too contaminated to be sold, so was crushed and used for aggregate, at a cost to the council.
Mr Avery said there was strong demand for clean glass, and it was expected the contractors would be able to sell as much as they could collect.
It was hoped the cost of black bags would be reduced, as EnviroWay would be able to do both the private waste collection work of EnviroWaste, and the council's work, saving money and lowering the contract price.
Mr Avery said he did not consider that would affect the council's collection, as the service levels had been stipulated in the contract.
Asked about the issue of the company both doing the council contract and its private work, and if he was concerned about a monopoly, Cr Noone said: "In my view, if you look at the current situation with EnviroWaste, the current contractor, what has changed?"
The contract had been through a rigorous and competitive tender process, he said.
While EnviroWay would complete the collection, Fullcircle would run the resource recovery facility, which would be built on land owned by Hall Bros.
Hall Bros would set up a separate facility for commercial waste, processing materials including timber, concrete and building materials.
Cargill Enterprises, the trading arm of Disabled Citizens Otago, would provide staff to sort waste at the recovery facility, something general manager Derek King described as a "godsend" for a company that had struggled since Fisher and Paykel closed its Mosgiel operation.
EnviroWay would begin organising the distribution of bins, which could involve communal bins for apartments.
Special arrangements would be made for people physically unable to use the bins.
