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Auckland Council says residents will have a grace period to adjust to the new national standardised rules for kerbside recycling, which came into force today.
Waste Management general manager Parul Sood told the Herald that people will take time to realise the rules have changed and they don’t expect everyone to know it all straight away.
Sood said the team is focused on getting rid of the gross contaminants out of the recycling processes.
“Quite a bit of bagged rubbish, textiles, soft plastics and quite a few nappies all end up in recycling bins.”
From today, all district and city councilswill accept only glass bottles and jars, cans, paper and cardboard (including pizza boxes) and plastics numbered 1, 2 and 5 in their recycling collections.
Plastics 1, 2 and 5 include milk, soft drink and juice bottles, large yoghurt containers, two-litre hard icecream containers, cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese containers, some dip containers and some tomato, BBQ and mustard squeeze bottles. It also includes meat trays and some takeaway containers.
New items excluded from kerbside recycling are items less than 50mm, aerosol cans, liquid paperboard (commonly known as Tetra Pak), plastics 3, 4, 6 and 7, aluminium foil and trays, all lids and items over four litres.
Plastics 3, 4, 6 and 7 include small yoghurt/sour cream pottles, styrofoam, PVC pipes, polystyrene, biscuit and cracker trays, pill packets, some dip containers, soft plastics (plastics you can scrunch in your hand such as biscuit and cracker bags and trays, packaging from bread, rice, packaged vegetables and fruit, shiny gift wrap) and some tomato sauce, mustard and BBQ squeeze bottles.
What can and cannot be collected in Hamilton yellow lidded recycling bins from February 1.
Kerbside standardisation is expected to divert an extra 53,000 tonnes of recycling, about half of the recyclable materials thrown in rubbish bins each year and divert an extra 83,000 tonnes of food waste, the Government says.
Sood said the best way for people to understand the new recycling rules is through education.
“We have people who go and look into bins, and if there is something visually wrong, we will give a note to the owners telling them to please make sure the wrong items don’t end up in the bin again,” she said.
“We don’t tag the bins.”
Sood said it costs Auckland Council at least $3 million a year to remove gross contaminants from recycling.
