Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown says people need to behave more sensibly with rubbish after revelations the city's bin collections could be reduced to every two weeks.
The council's draft waste management and minimisation plan for next year has revealed a proposal to "transition to a fortnightly kerbside rubbish collection".
That would only take place, however, once kerbside food scrap bins were "well established", the council said.
According to the draft, the council would "support residents who are concerned about moving to fortnightly collections" to ensure it worked "for those in large households", RNZ reported.
Brown said it's currently "so easy" to dispose of rubbish in the city.
He told AM there was "no pressure" on people to change their habits and behave more responsibly.
Brown said his own apartment block was trying to limit the amount of rubbish it goes through.
"It's just a problem that's been solved so easily now," Brown said but added: "I wasn't actually there when they voted on the two-week thing."
The reduced service proposed in the draft wouldn't begin until 2026, the NZ Herald reported.
AM co-host Michael O'Keefe asked the mayor whether he was in favour.
He didn't directly answer the question but noted New Zealand's culture wasn't good when it came to waste management.
"We throw too much away," Brown said.
He said simply "biffing stuff out... is not a good thing".
"We're careless with rubbish in New Zealand, it's not good. You go to countries like Korea, they don't even have rubbish bins," Brown said. "We can't just heave everything out and let somebody else pick it up."
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