The Ministry for the Environment is standardising the items that can be collected for kerbside recycling across Aotearoa New Zealand – for Kāpiti this means no changes.

Kāpiti Coast District Council waste projects manager Robbie Stilwell said the ministry’s move would make it clearer for households, especially people visiting from out of town, on what can go into the recycling bins.

“It’ll be easier for everyone to ‘recycle right’ but there’s always room to do more and do better,” he said.

“We’re still keen to see more households recycling and more eligible material being recycled rather than going to landfill. An easy first step is to make sure your yellow bins are not contaminated with dirty or unrecyclable materials,” Mr Stilwell said.

From 1 February 2024, materials accepted for kerbside collection from households for recycling will be the same across the country. All district and city councils will accept only these materials in their recycling collections:

1. glass bottles and jars without lids
2. paper and cardboard (including pizza boxes with food scraps removed)
3. plastic bottles and containers marked with recycling symbols 1, 2, and 5 (without lids)
4. food tins and drink cans.

Remember to take the lids off glass and plastic bottles, rinse out your dirty items, and put them out for recycling.

“Recycled plastics can be turned into new plastic products and glass can be turned into new glass bottles, but the lids are too small for the sorting machinery to run properly, so you need to remove them and throw in the rubbish,” Mr Stilwell said.

Here’s what you can’t put out for recycling:

1. Compostable packaging and containers
2. Nappies and sanitary products
3. Lids for bottles, jars, and containers
4. Fabric and clothing
5. Soft plastics (like plastic bags or wrapping)
6. Polystyrene
7. E-waste
8. Coffee cups and lids
9. Aerosols

“Some of these things seem obvious, but you’d be amazed at what some people dump into the recycling bins. Please don’t include filthy or unsanitary items – think of our poor workers having to deal with this material and it usually means the whole lot has to go to landfill because of the contamination,” Mr Stilwell said.

“The other thing people get confused about are used pizza boxes. It’s fine to recycle these if the food scraps are removed. The machinery can handle a bit of food grease on the cardboard, but not lumps of food.

E-waste, or electronic waste, is discarded electrical or electronic devices such as televisions, computers, printers, cameras, batteries, fixed line and mobile phones.

“We have e-waste collection points at both our Otaihanga and Ōtaki transfer stations. E-waste is a growing issue everywhere, with the average New Zealander producing more than 20 kilograms every year but it has valuable elements, such as copper and gold, which can be reused if recycled right – that means not in your kerbside bin.”

Read more about how you can recycle right at kapiticoast.govt.nz/recycling.

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