Kerbside glass collection service to resume on Monday

Residents are asked to put out their blue glass crates on their usual collection day. Photo / NZME

Tauranga City Council will resume its kerbside glass collection service from April 11.

Council's Manager for Sustainability and Waste, Sam Fellows said the return of glass collections was a welcome sight to see.

"We're delighted to resume the glass collection service and see our region's kerbside collection drivers get back behind the wheel after self-isolating as household contacts or positive Covid-19 cases.

"We appreciate everyone's understanding and patience during this trying time as we've adjusted our service to ensure the wellbeing of our contractors and the health and safety of our community.

"Our community does a fantastic job of recycling and I know they will be pleased to see the sight of an empty glass crate again soon," Fellows said.

If your blue glass crate is currently overflowing, we ask that you remove the excess glass until it is level with the lip of the crate before you put it out on the kerbside.

Extra glass put out in cardboard boxes or containers alongside your blue glass crate will not be collected.

"There is a health and safety risk posed to the drivers by collecting glass in anything other than the blue kerbside crates. Excessive loads increase the risk of strains from lifting high volumes of glass all day, and there is the risk of cardboard boxes breaking when the drivers attempt to lift them," Fellows said.

"We also don't have the capacity in our recycling trucks to take more than one full glass crate per household."

Extra glass can be stored and then drip fed into the glass collections, taken to the transfer station, or as a last resort put in the red lid rubbish bin.

Residents are asked to put out their blue glass crates on their usual collection day.

As there still are fewer drivers than usual, with some still isolating or recovering from COVID-19, food scrap bins are unable to be collected.

During this time, people can freeze food scraps or place them in their green lid garden waste bin, or in their red lid rubbish bin.

To check your kerbside collection dates, download the Tauranga kerbside collections app.