Taupō Recycling: Glass only, kerbside pick-up resumes Tuesday

Taupo District Council kerbside collection of rubbish for recycling will begin with glass only being picked up next week. Photo / Taupō District Council

The evidence is in the recycling, we now know exactly how much alcohol our households consume in five weeks. Plus there are a lot of other conclusions to be drawn from the pile of recycling stacked up since kerbside collection was halted at the start of lockdown.

All those glass bottles will disappear from Tuesday onwards, as the council starts up its rubbish recycling service.

With the country moving to Covid-19 alert level 3, the council will resume collecting glass for recycling. With five weeks of recycling to pick up, council decided to start with just glass as they endeavour to uphold the Government's strict health and safety and social distancing measures.

Taupō residents have been storing glass for recycling for five weeks. Photo / Supplied

The following week, council will pick up glass plus cardboard and paper, and the week after that normal recycling will resume (starting Monday, May 11).

Around the district, land and transfer stations will open for general rubbish collection. However, initially recycling can only be collected at the kerb. To find out precisely what will be open, visit www.taupodc.govt.nz/property-and-rates/rubbish-and-recycling.

Chief executive Gareth Green said that while these facilities are open, including for greenwaste, council is still encouraging people to remain at home, unless it is essential to visit.

"It's important that we are still ensuring physical distancing and limiting face-to-face customer interactions as per the government's instructions. Staying at home is the best way to do this," said Mr Green.

"To ensure we are doing our utmost to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19 at our facilities, we have also had to hold off on accepting recycling at our facilities at this stage due to the number of staff needed at the site and a lack of physical distancing with the customers.

"Thank you to everyone who has stockpiled their recycling at home over the last month. It has been a district-wide effort and now we can move a bit closer to normality with these steps. At the same time, we are expecting larger volumes than normal at kerbside, so there may be some delays in collection, please be patient as we work through this."