WCC blacklists 800 homes for bad recycling

The worst offending homes will have to pay for recycling bags or go without. Photo / iStock

The Wellington City Council has stopped providing free recycling bags to 800 homes in the region after the residents were found to have had "ongoing rubbish offences".

Over the next two months, the council will deliver 52 green recycling bags to each of 26,000 households in Wellington, but the blacklisted residents will have to go without, or buy their own.

Extra bags usually cost $13 for 26 and crates cost $15 each.

The council's environment committee chairwoman, Councillor Iona Pannett, said a few bad apples had tainted it for everyone in the community.

"We know most residents are good recyclers, and their households may be doing everything right, but unfortunately too many residents in some streets have been using the green recycling bags to dispose of general household rubbish.

"This is a widespread problem in some areas, but we inform the neighbourhood of the situation and they can request the green bags through our service centre."

There were 368 homes added to the list in 2014, 187 in 2015 and 245 this year.

The streets with the most residents blacklisted include The Terrace in Te Aro with 90, Aro St in Aro Valley with 87, Hiropi St in Newtown with 60, and Thompson St in Mount Cook with 54.

The recycling bags are for all recyclables except glass, and residents can have two glass crates per household.

Wellington recycles about 12,000 tonnes of material a year, but there is still 84,000 tonnes of waste that ends up at the Southern Landfill.

Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said things are improving but could be much better.

"We did a waste assessment analysis of official yellow rubbish bags in 2011 which showed up to half the contents were made up of paper, tins, cans, and plastic - all of which could be cleaned and recycled.

"We work hard to keep everyone informed with regular communications about rubbish and recycling through our numerous channels ... and we've been delivering free packs of recycling bags to residents since 2011."

Inner city residents have a different process for recycling with some properties having a council wheelie bin.

Two recycling bags are equivalent to one bin - 140 litres.

Meanwhile, Auckland Council says it does not have a list of households that have been banned from using the city's recycling services.

Manager of waste solutions at the council, Ian Stupple, said on occasion they do find items left out for recycling collection that aren't appropriate to collect.

" ... and we will sticker these with an explanation for the home owner to explain why it wasn't collected.

"Aucklanders are good recyclers and one of our priorities is to educate residents about what items can be collected through our recycling services."

The Blacklist

10 - MAARAMA CR, ARO VALLEY

8 - ESSEX ST, ARO VALLEY

87 - ARO ST, ARO VALLEY

28 - ADAMS TER, ARO VALLEY

14 - ADELAIDE RD, BERHAMPORE

12 - WARIPORI ST, BERHAMPORE

18 - PALM GR, BERHAMPORE

12 - DR TAYLOR TER, JOHNSONVILLE

16 - ROTOITI ST, JOHNSONVILLE

34 - KELBURN PDE, KELBURN

5 - FAIRLIE TER, KELBURN

12 - MILLER PL, LYALL BAY

8 - KAIKOURA ST, MAUPUIA

38 - NAIRN ST, MOUNT COOK

54 - THOMPSON ST, MOUNT COOK

26 - WRIGHT ST, MOUNT COOK

21 - BROWN ST, MOUNT COOK

11 - ELIZABETH ST, MOUNT VICTORIA

8 - VOGEL ST, MOUNT VICTORIA

30 - DANIELL ST, NEWTOWN

60 - HIROPI ST, NEWTOWN

19 - MILLWARD ST, NEWTOWN

7 - STOKE ST, NEWTOWN

43 - HANSON ST, NEWTOWN

17 - PEMBROKE RD, NORTHLAND

12 - GRASS ST, ORIENTAL BAY

90 - THE TERRACE, TE ARO

16 - MAURICE TER, TE ARO

20 - MALCOLM LN, THORNDON

32 - GRANT RD, THORNDON

15 - PITARUA ST, THORNDON

12 - WILTON RD, WILTON

5 - SHROPSHIRE AVE, WILTON