Tuesday is crunch time for the Waitaki District Council, which must decide how rubbish in the district will be handled and disposed of in the future.
After almost two years of investigating options and of public debate, the council will decide at its April meeting whether to scrap the whole process - costing ratepayers about $230,000 - or go ahead and choose a contractor.
Two contractors are in the running for Waitaki's solid waste contract - Envirowaste and Delta Services.
During the past two years, there has been considerable disquiet about the methods proposed to collect rubbish, recycling and the future of the Waitaki Resource Recovery Trust and its Oamaru resource recovery park in Chelmer St.
Complicating that has been the emergence of community groups at Palmerston, Hampden and in the Waitaki Valley who want a part of the process, especially recycling.
The council has been forced to look at the way the district's rubbish is handled, including the problem of space running out in the Oamaru and Palmerston landfills, increasing recycling and re-use, kerbside collection and recycling, increased community expectations and central Government taking an increasing interest in waste minimisation.
The council prepared two "requests for proposals'' from potential contractors; the first seeking ideas and proposals from 11 contractors and the second - to preferred contractors Envirowaste and Delta Services - for prices.
During that process, it called for public submissions, and received 2034 responses - a record on an issue facing the council.
Concerns were raised about the method of the kerbside collection, but by far the biggest worry was the effect it could have on the future of the Waitaki Resource Recovery Trust and its park.
Growing pressure on the council to retain the trust and park, saw it modify its request for proposals, asking the two contractors for options that included the trust.
On Tuesday, all the planning, proposals and consultation come together in a 33-page report from the council's solid waste officer Gerry O'Neil.
It has two recommendations:
Endorsing the modified three bins collections system; or Rescinding previous resolutions and starting a fresh evaluation of kerbside collection systems.
If the council decides to carry on with the process - and the Otago Daily Times understands it could be evenly divided - then it would exclude the public and decide on a system and contractor without the public being present.
If the council decided to start again, Mr O'Neil estimated it would take six to 12 months before a new contractor was selected.
