Recycling pause: Glass, plastics and cans on hold in Napier and Hastings

Hastings resident Courtney Henderson with a recycling bin. Photo / NZME

Kerbside recycling collection, apart from the cardboard and paper bin, will stop temporarily across Napier and the wider Hastings district because of Covid disruptions.

Recycling bins for glass, plastics and cans will not be collected from Monday, March 14, until "further notice".

Hastings District Council and Napier City Council said today staff, including transport and sorting workers, have been affected by Covid.

"We can continue taking paper and cardboard because it requires less sorting on collection and goes straight to Hawk Packaging, who need this supply to produce fruit trays for our region," Craig Thew, Hastings District Council group asset manager, said.

"Plastics and cans, and glass collections are more time consuming and require transport to other regions."

Cardboard and paper bins can still be put out. Photo / Supplied

Napier council acting director of infrastructure Debra Stewart said the councils will reinstate full recycling collections as soon as staffing levels allow.

Until then, plastics, cans and glass can either be stored or taken to one of Hastings' or Napier's recycling stations.

Private green waste collector Bay Environmental Bins revealed this week 60 per cent of its drivers were off work because of Covid, and warned of customers of disruptions to their wheelie bin collection.

General waste wheelie bin collection has not been affected in the wider Napier and Hastings areas, the councils confirmed.

Hawke's Bay had 700 new cases of Covid today, with 21 in hospital.

Nationally there were 21,015 new community cases of Covid-19, and a record 845 people in hospital, including 16 in intensive care or high dependency units.

The Novavax vaccine is now available for New Zealanders after a shipment of 250,000 arrived.

It is available to those over the age of 18. It requires two doses, with a three-week gap and it has not been approved as a booster dose.

Meanwhile director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said some parents were having challenges reporting RAT results for their children. He acknowledged some who had been calling the 0800 number had experienced delays.

Test results for children 12 and under can be done online, via My Covid Record, from tomorrow, he said.

The total number of Covid deaths to date stands at 91. Each death represents a community and a whānau that is grieving, Bloomfield said.