Wellington City Council recycling warning after metre-long fish found, dog poo finds

Recycling in Wellington comes with a large number of contaminants. Photo / File

Wellingtonians are being warned not to contaminate their recycling, as everything from dog poo to a metre-long fish ends up at the sorting facility.

They were just a couple of the high number of items found in the city's recycling that shouldn't be there, Wellington City Council waste minimisation manager Jenny Elliott said.

Sorters at the recycling plant got a nasty surprise when they found the fish, which had already begun to decompose.

"I don't know why someone would think it's okay to put that in the recycling," Elliott said.

Even if the fish had been fresh when it was put in the recycling, it would still smell awful by the time it reached the sorting facility, but it was not, she said.

"I think stinky would be an understatement."

The unpleasant find served as a good reminder to people to be careful what they put in the recycling, as workers found everything from food scraps to clothing, toys, dirty nappies, and broken glass.

One broken shard of glass in the recycling left a contractor with a nasty gash recently.

Another horrible yet common inclusion to people's recycling was bags of dog poo, Elliott said, which created a "huge risk of exposure to pathogens for the team".

Rates of contaminated recycling for Wellington were "quite high". Food scraps were the most common contaminant.

Elliott thought it could be confusion for some people who were wanting to find a responsible way to dispose of organic material.

The council was exploring possible organic collection solutions, but in the meantime Elliott encouraged residents to learn how to compost at home or get a worm farm, or engage with organisations such as Kaicycle to help get rid of food waste.

She also wanted to remind people to remove lids from containers, as this could trap liquids inside. The lids were also too small to be correctly sorted, though residents could visit the tip shop to have them recycled.

People should also avoid squashing cans and plastic, because if items were squashed too small it could cause them to be sorted incorrectly. Squashing items was also not necessary as the collection trucks could compact the recycling to the right size.

Elliott wanted to remind people to be thoughtful when recycling.

"Real people are still sorting all the recycling by hand," she said.

"My best piece of advice, I think ... is not to put in anything you wouldn't want your own friends and family to be sifting through."

Items discovered by recycling sorters in Wellington:

• Oven trays.
• 1m fish.
• Jandals.
• Bags of dog poo.
• Corn on the cob.
• Dirty nappies.