Nelson City Council and Tasman District Council have committed to doing all they can to ensure your weekly kerbside rubbish collection by local contractors will continue throughout the stage four shutdown period.

To keep our collection staff as safe as possible please ensure all medical waste and tissues are put in a separate bag before they go into your kerbside bag or refuse bin. We also ask that bin bags are not left outside homes until the day of collection.

Kerbside recycling collections in the Nelson and Tasman region will also continue during the stage four coronavirus shutdown period, however recyclable materials, e.g. paper, cardboard, plastics and glass, will NOT be recycled and will be treated as general waste/rubbish and sent to landfill. This is because sorting facilities need to close unless they are fully automated, to prevent unnecessary risk of Covid-19 exposure to staff. All five Tasman District Resource Recovery Centres and the Pascoe Street transfer station will be closed to the public from 4pm today.

If possible and safe to do so, residents have the option of storing their clean recycling materials for when normal collection resumes. Recycling will return to normal once the coronavirus risk level is low enough for the government to allow manual sorting facilities to reopen.

Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese says she knows this will be disappointing news for the region’s residents who are passionate about recycling.

“If you want to keep safe and clean packaging at home until recycling resumes that is fine, but if you don’t have the space the safest place for it to go right now is landfill.

“Where possible, this could be an opportunity to buy food and other essential items that use as little packaging as possible. The most important thing though, is to remember that this will not be forever, recycling will return as normal, and your household’s safety is paramount.”

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