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Recycling Info and FAQs

Changes to Kerbside Recycling

As of October 2022, Central Otago recycling is being sent to the Timaru Materials Recovery Facility for processing. Check the answers to questions below to make sure you're up to date with the latest recycling guidelines.

What can go in my yellow recycling bin?

The following items can go in your yellow mixed recycling bin:

  • Clean aluminium drink cans and empty aerosol cans
  • Clean steel food cans
  • Clean and dry paper and cardboard
  • Plastic No 1: eg clear drink bottles only, fruit punnets, meat trays, peanut butter jars, dishwash bottles
  • Plastic No 2: eg milk bottles and household cleaner bottles
  • Plastic No 5: eg ice cream containers, large yoghurt pottles

All other plastics are unable to be recycled and should be placed in the red topped bin. This includes: All soft plastic, and any plastic items numbered 3, 4, 6 or 7 or with no number.

Pizza boxes are not accepted at all in the yellow recycling bin. These are often too contaminated by grease and food and cannot be recycled. This type of cardboard can make a great addition to your compost, or for layering on your vegetable garden to keep weeds down. Alternatively, they can be used as a fire starter, or even better, dine in or make your own to avoid the waste altogether.

How do I make sure I recycle right?

Follow these three simple steps to make sure your plastic recycling is right:

  1. Look:
    Check for a number on your plastic item -
    No number? This is unable to be recycled and should be placed in your red bin.
    Number 3, 4, 6 or 7? This is unable to be recycled and should be placed in your red bin.
    Number 1, 2 or 5? Great! Ready to recycle!
  2. Prepare
    Empty out any contents and give it a good rinse.
    Remove ALL lids, trigger sprays or pumps. These need to go in your red bin, or see if you can find some creative use for them!
    Remove any shrink-wrapped plastic labelling (this should have a "zip" perforation for this purpose) and place this in your red bin.
  3. Recycle!
    Place your bin out at the kerbside before 7am on the day of collection, away from trees, power poles and parked cars.

Why can’t I put lids in recycling?

"Lids" covers a wide variety of items.

  • Sometimes the lid is made of the same plastic as the main container and sometimes not.
  • Sometimes the lid is the same colour as the main container and sometimes not.
  • Sometimes the lid is quite a big part of the container and sometimes not.
  • Sometimes the container has been well cleaned out and the lid replaced, and sometimes not.

Because of these variabilities, to increase the quality of our recycling and to simplify the process of recycling the messaging is no lids – of any kinds.

Often lids are left on a dirty container causing contamination of all other recycling when the lid inevitably falls off during processing - not to mention making it a bad workday for our hard-working recycling sorters. When the plastic items are baled up for reprocessing the smaller lids will often fall out and end up in landfill or causing littering issues.

Other lids are pumps or triggers and possibly contain a mixture of plastic types and metals making them hard to recycle.

Please remove all lids from plastic items 1, 2 and 5 and place in your red rubbish bin – or find some creative reuse for them.

How can I make the most of my recycling?

Check the plastic types in your cupboards and in your supermarket trolley and start making switches to easy-to-recycle products to help reduce waste to landfill.

Look for similar products that are packaged in other recyclable materials like, cans, glass or cardboard.

If you cannot avoid non-recyclable plastics, perhaps reduce how frequently you purchase the item.

What happens to my recycling?

Your kerbside recycling goes to a materials recovery facility, or MRF, in Timaru. Once sorted and separated, recyclables are sent to local and international markets so they can have a second life. The Timaru MRF is operated by EnviroWaste, part of the EnviroNZ group.

What is Council doing to find a long-term solution?

Change requires a collaborative approach involving councils, producers, manufacturers and the community, with central government as the key enabler.

In 2020, we supported the Local Government Waste Manifesto as a remit at the Local Government New Zealand conference. Since then, central government has put out several key pieces of work, including a draft Waste Strategy, a work strategy for the motu to 2050, and a proposal to introduce a Container Return Scheme (bottle deposits) and to Standardise Kerbside Collection services. CODC has made submissions to support these proposals whilst highlighting the unique challenges for recycling and waste minimisation faced by rural populations without ready access to waste and recycling infrastructure.

Central government has a programme to phase out the use of hard-to-recycle and single-use plastics within Aotearoa New Zealand. The first of these bans came into effect in October 2022. The following items will not be allowed to be imported into or sold within the country:

  • PVC food trays and containers for produce, baked goods and meat
  • Polystyrene and expanded polystyrene takeaway food and drink packaging
  • Plastic with chemical additives designed to physically breakdown, e.g. ox-degradable and photo-degradable plastics
  • Plastic drink stirrers
  • Plastic stemmed cotton buds

CODC is also working with our neighbouring districts and at a regional level to ensure we work to support the vision of our Waste Management and Minimisation Plan - Towards Zero Waste and a Sustainable Central Otago.

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