Rubbish and Recycling

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Recycling

We can recycle logo.

Did you know that sixty-five per cent of your rubbish can be recycled or composted? Reduce your rubbish by recycling!

Recyclable items can be taken to transfer stations or sorted and put into supermarket-sized bags and put out with your weekly rubbish collection.

When is my rubbish day?

All recycling needs to be put in supermarket bags with the handles tied. Paper and card can be tied into bundles of supermarket size - anything bigger will not fit into the truck.

Remember to ‘Wash and Squash'!

Please triple rinse and squash all bottles before putting them into your bag. Chemical containers cannot be accepted.

What can be recycled?

A graphic showing what you can recycle - Shopping and bread bags, glass bottles and jars, unwaxed cardboard, clean pizza boxes, aluminum cans, newspapers, junk mail, magazines, paper, milk and soft drink bottles, plastic containers (numbers 1 and 2), food tins, telephone books, egg cartons and cereal boxes.

There is no limit on the amount you can recycle each week. Just make sure it is included on the list below. We have also created a Recycle Guide for you to print off and pop on the fridge for easy reference.

Recycle guide (One page 500KB PDF)

Plastic bottles and jars – Grades 1 and 2 only

Fizzy, fruit and water bottles;
Marmite, jam, peanut butter plastic jars;
Detergent and cleaning bottles.
Milk and cream bottles, household detergent bottles.
Plastic shopping and bread bags.

No glad wrap, polystyrene, yoghurt pots, plastic cutlery.

Cans

Aluminium cans.
Canned food (e.g. tuna, fruit, pet food).

Please rinse out all cans.

Paper and cardboard

Newspaper.
Magazines.
Junk mail.
Envelopes.
Cardboard of any thickness.

Paper and cardboard needs to be folded and bundled. Bundles should be no larger than a supermarket bag.

No tissues, serviettes, waxed or plastic coated paper or card, e.g. tetrapak cartons.

Glass (clear, green, brown and blue) bottles and jars

Soft drink bottles.
Wine bottles.
Beer bottles.

No heat-treated, broken or sheet glass, e.g. Arcoroc, Pyrex or window glass.

For health and safety reasons, all recyclables including glass must be in supermarket bags with handles tied.

Here's what happens to our recycling.

What isn’t accepted for recycling?

Expanded polystyrene, e.g. disposable cups, meat trays, packing, hamburger boxes etc.
Butter, margarine and similar plastic containers.
Hard plastic items, e.g. toys, tools, crates, etc.
Waxed or plastic coated paper or card including milk cartons.
Window or mirror glass, crockery, light bulbs or heat-treated glass.

Other ways to reduce your rubbish

If you don't need it, don't take it - do you really need that plastic bag to carry your purchase? Can you buy a similar product that has less packaging?
Composting your garden waste and kitchen scraps is a great idea and you can reuse the composted material on your garden. If you can't compost or mulch, separate your garden waste and take it to a transfer station.
Freecycle! Freecycle are an online community where people who have unwanted items can easily find other people who want them, rather than sending them to the landfills. This allows perfectly good (but unwanted) items from being thrown into the landfils, and giving them a new lease of life with a new owner.
Check out the Recycling Directory (on the TRC website) to find out how to recycle items that aren't included in the kerbside collection.
E-waste can be taken to the e-waste recycling depot.

Did you know?

Every year we dispose of 3.4 million tonnes of rubbish – nearly a tonne for every man, woman and child in New Zealand.

Rubbish doesn't break down in a landfill. What we throw out stays around for a very long time.
Sixty-five per cent of your rubbish can be recycled or composted.
Every month, New Zealanders dispose of enough rubbish to fill a rugby field to more than 30 storeys high.
Each of us produces three times more rubbish than we did 20 years ago – and we are running out of places to put it.
Burning rubbish releases dioxins into the air, contaminating the atmosphere, and also destroys materials that are recyclable.
Taranaki has a Freecycle group (see website below) which is open to anyone who want to recycle items rather than throw them away.