The district council is one of two in the country not to provide full kerbside recycling.
It has been this way since 2020 when the council limited the service to glass because of rising costs.
At a council meeting in November last year, councillors supported a target of July 1 to have a full scale kerbside recycling service up and running again if there was community support for it.
However, at their meeting yesterday, councillors voted to get costings for different recycling options with the intention of then going to the community for public consultation.
Mayor Ben Bell was the sole vote against the recommendation, given it would mean missing the July 1 target.
"We seem to be doing this thing again of kicking the can down the road and looking for information to make a decision," he said.
"I’m a firm believer that we need to give staff direction to execute recycling by July 1."
Whichever option the council decided on, it was likely to be a three-bin system for landfill, recycling and glass.
"I don’t see why we couldn’t commit to getting the bins at least ordered and on their way and then we have that discussion about financials come annual plan.
"We simply can’t sit around and say ‘we’re not doing recycling’. That’s not fair on our ratepayers or our community."
Cr Bronwyn Reid said that the district still had recycling options outside of the kerbside service, such as the Pakeke Lions’ cardboard recycling service.
Cr Bret Highsted said he did not feel comfortable making any sort of decision without the costs in front of them.
General manager critical services Jason Domigan said the council’s recycling budget should cover whichever option the council went with, but the problem was that money was being used to supplement the waste-to-landfill budget, which was failing to meet rising costs.
"At this point, that’s indicated as being somewhere around a $500,000 shortfall. That’s the immediate cost I think that faces council."
It was a cost that had been increasing by $250,000 a year since 2019 while the Government was also making waste-to-landfill more costly through progressively rising levies, Mr Domigan said.
