Hauraki District Council's wasting no time with new recycling initiative

Mayor Toby Adams shows off the new orange recycling bins along with a clean, cut-up carton, ready for the bin, and the finished low-carbon, upcycled building product from saveBoard. Photo / Supplied

The Hauraki district community now has more ways to reduce recyclable material going to landfill with the introduction of council's community bin collection scheme for Liquid Paper Board (LPB) beverage cartons.

"This is a biggie for us," said Mayor Adams. "The innovation out there for recyclable material is amazing and we're really excited to be partnering with Tetra Pak® and Waikato-based company saveBOARD who've found a way to recycle LPB cartons into low-carbon construction material."

Every saveBOARD product diverts 25kg of packaging waste from landfill and uses approximately 500x 1L beverage cartons, which is a great solution for everyday packaging waste.

Mayor Adams said the success of the council's soft plastic collection bins in the community inspired even more ways to get recyclable products out of landfill rubbish bags and into productive collection streams.

"Your juice, milk and other beverage cartons have been taking up space in your yellow rubbish bags. Now you can recycle them by dropping them into the orange bins at our three service centres; our refuse transfer stations and the Hauraki Repair and Reuse Centre in Paeroa," said Mayor Adams.

SaveBOARD's CEO Paul Charteris says it is great to have Hauraki District Council on board too.

"It shows that the district is passionate about the environment, and this new initiative is one piece of the puzzle to help grow New Zealand's circular economy," he said.

Council is on a countdown to September 1, 2023 to put as many recycling options in place before the new kerbside collection contract starts with Waste Management.

"The support from the community for our No Time to Waste Tiakina a Papa Mimiti te Para campaign is really encouraging so we're expecting great results from this new LPB carton collection," said Mayor Adams.

The cartons need to be cut along the top and sides, leaving the cap attached, washed and dried, and then popped into the bins flat. SaveBOARD will turn them into building material and any off-cuts from the building process can be returned to saveBOARD to be recycled into more product.

Council will empty the collection bins, bale up the product at the Refuse Transfer Stations, and Tetra Pak® will pay for the transportation and processing at saveBOARD in Te Rapa, Hamilton.