Changes made to Napier City Council's recycling collection

Changes are coming to Napier's recycling system. Photo / File

From next month, Napier residents will be unable to recycle some types of plastics.

Grades 3-7 are no longer recyclable, because there is no international market for them.

Director of infrastructure services Jon Kingsford said for the past year contractors have had to stockpile plastics, because shipments are unpredictable.

There is also no guarantee that the less valuable plastics will be recycled when they have been exported.

"We don't want the landfill to fill up unnecessarily with plastics, but neither do we want our contractor to be put in the position of having to store these unwanted items.

"The best option therefore is to collect and recycle only the plastics that have a market."

The decision, which was made at an extraordinary meeting of Napier City Council on Tuesday, follows Hastings District Council, who made a similar decision at a meeting last week.

Napier will pick up all grade 1-2 plastics, Hastings decision is specific to plastic bottles which are grade 1-2.

The changes will come in some time in May. A public awareness campaign clarifying the changes, as well as confirming the date when the new rules will apply, will begin shortly.

Napier residents need to be aware that from this date recycling placed in plastic bags will be rejected, because the bags themselves cannot be recycled, and present issues with the new sorting rules.

Currently there is no national strategy around recycling standards and councils across NZ are managing recycling differently.

NCC's suggestions to residents is to think carefully about the products they buy and whether the packaging is reusable or recyclable.