As Auckland Council debates whether it will introduce fortnightly rubbish collections, instead of the historically reliable weekly rounds of the rubbish truck, one of the councillors around the table has expressed his concern over the idea.

The council is currently considering the introduction of the new collection format in 2026 as part of the draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan which contains targets to reduce the amount of household rubbish put out in bins.

The plan's goal is to reduce kerbside rubbish from a 2022 baseline of 141kg to 120kg per capita by 2028 and to 100kg by 2030.

However, it's an approach that ruffled the feathers of Manurewa-Papakura ward councillor Daniel Newman, who believes the proposal would rob residents of choice and convenience.

"It's going to be very inconvenient and controversial - it's not going to be popular," he told The Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning.

As Newman explained, he said there were unfortunately "true believers" around the council table who believed in creating cycleways by putting concrete blocks all over the road and building concrete apartments on your back fence.

"[They also believe] that you can basically cut your rubbish in half and that they can take away choice when it comes to rubbish collection," he said.

"So, I've got a fight on my hands."

Hosking mentioned that when his family had seven occupants living in their home, they had the same-sized rubbish bin as their next-door neighbour - a lady in her seventies who lived alone.

"How does that work?" Hosking asked.

Newman admitted every household was different and the circumstances were complex, but when it came to household sanitation there needed to be realism factored into the plans for its collection.

"There's no easy way to do this. My concern, particularly as a South Auckland councillor, was when I door-knocked houses on streets in my neighbourhood you see those big household families," he said.

"Even if everybody was the most prodigious recycler, minimising their waste footprint, it's still going to be a significant volume of waste and it's going to need that service weekly - not fortnightly."

Hosking suggested the move to fortnightly collections would lead to the wealthy hiring private contractors to just do a weekly collection anyway - Newman agreed with the theory.

"It just entrenches the same old inequality," he said.

"The same colleagues are sitting around saying 'well that's terrible', well, they'll start to look in the mirror and work out they were partly responsible."

The proposal comes as Auckland Council wrestles with a budget hole, with ratepayers now facing service cuts, asset sales and big rates increases as officials try to balance the books.

The council has already sold down part of its share parcel in Auckland Airport and Mayor Wayne Brown has also floated the idea of selling a long-term lease to Port of Auckland and putting the proceeds into a new multi-billion investment fund.