Kerbside recycling collection

Sometimes eager recyclers may want to recycle things we don’t collect through our kerbside collection. But there are really good reasons not to do that.

Your recycling may get left behind if the wrong things are in your crate. We know this is frustrating when you were trying to do the right thing. The ultimate aim is to be able to make new products – and mixing them or including the wrong items means this does not happen.

1. It costs time and money
   The average recycling service crew member will collect 500 to 750 crates each day, taking an average 12 seconds to collect and empty each crate. Having to stop and sticker incorrect crates doubles this time and creates additional operating costs – paid for out of rates.
2. It reduces the quality of recycling
   If it’s not spotted by our crew in the short time they have to look at each crate, mixed or dirty recycling becomes a problem at the sorting facility. All recycling is sorted by hand to remove items that shouldn’t be there (such as the wrong types of plastic or items with food on them) but with hundreds of items passing sorters each minute they may miss some items.
   The sorted products are bailed for transport to re-processors to be turned into something new. If the levels of wrong or dirty items are too high the entire bale may be rejected and sent to landfill instead, meaning everybody’s good efforts have gone to waste.
3. It may cause safety issues or damage the recycling machinery
   Having the wrong items in a sorting line can also cause issues if it’s going through a system not designed to process it. It may jam or damage the machinery and create a hazard for workers.
4. Only accepted items go on to be recycled
   The facilities that take our recycling only have the ability to recycle the items we accept at the kerbside – that’s why they have been selected for recycling. Rejected items from the sorting line will go to landfill.

Plastic and cans

Plastics stamped with a 1 or 2 are sorted from the cans in a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Kopu, near Thames.

DID YOU KNOW? Your recycling crates are made in New Zealand from 40% recycled milk bottles?

Paper and cardboard

Our paper and cardboard goes straight from kerbside to local company Hawk Packaging who turn it into fruit trays.

Glass

Our glass goes to Visy Auckland.

Using crates to separate items ensures we have the cleanest recycling possible. The high quality of material collected guarantees it will be recycled.

In Hastings, separating recycling allows paper and cardboard to be collected separately and dropped directly to Hawk Packaging to be made into fruit trays, saving on double-handling and transport costs and emissions. it is especially important to keep glass separate from paper and cardboard, as there can’t be any fragments of glass in it for health and safety reasons.

While wheelie bins are simple to use, the quality of recycling that comes out of the mixed recycling wheelie bins has proved to be much lower in the regions using them. Typically, wheelie bin systems also mean all recycling is mixed in together and requires sorting, which costs much more.