Matamata-Piako residents failing to adhere to recycling changes

Matamata-Piako residents have been failing to recycle properly. Photo / File

Matamata-Piako residents are struggling to change their recycling ways after the council announced earlier in the year it would be cutting back on recycling certain grades of plastics.

Overseas markets for recycling have changed and China, which was taking up to 50 per cent of the world's recycling, has closed its doors to much of New Zealand's recycling.

And while grades 1-2 were being recycled in New Zealand there is still currently no onshore facility to recycle grades 3-7. The change in the international market means many councils across New Zealand, including Hauraki District and Thames-Coromandel, were also cutting back on recycling.

Hamilton City Council, whose new rubbish and recycling collection service starts next week, also recently announced that while it would start collecting grades 3-7 plastics with the new service, it would only be sorting and storing them while it searched for a long-term solution.

Over the past two months the Matamata-Piako council has been advertising these changes to plastics collection and recently began conducting district-wide audits of wheelie bin contents when the recycling trucks are emptied at the transfer stations. The council said it was disappointed by the amount of rubbish and incorrect plastics that have been put out with recycling.

The wheelie bins it audited were contaminated with nappies, carpet, food and soft plastics such as food packaging and food wrap.

All the recycling contaminated by rubbish will go to landfill, which the council said was a shame, because many people in the community work hard to recycle correctly.

The council said the wheelie bins are for recycling only, which includes plastic grades 1-2: clear and white milk bottles; sports and soft drink bottles; meat trays; fruit and produce containers; shampoo, conditioner, handwash and bodywash bottles; tins and cans; plus paper and cardboard items that are dry and free of food scraps (oil on pizza boxes is okay).

It said to recycle properly, residents must check that all plastics are only of grades 1 and 2 and ensure the recycling is clean.

The council is also replacing its current black council rubbish bags with bright pink bags, which will be available at council offices and supermarkets. Their capacity is 60 litres like the current bags but a new supplier has provided a sturdier bag which shouldn't rip as easily as the black bags.

Residents can continue to use the black bags until the new bags arrive.