Recyclables in parts of the country are going to the landfill due to a lack of staff to run our waste services.
Wellington City Council says 25 to 50 per cent of its co-mingled recycling is being taken to the tip, and glass cannot be collected right now at all.
The city usually collects 115 tonnes of mixed recycling and 95 tonnes of glass every week.
"That's a result of Oji, who operate our recycle processing unit in Seaview, they're down by 25%, similarly our contractor EnviroWaste, who collects our rubbish and recycling, their staff numbers are down 33%, so we have halted our glass collections," the council's chief infrastructure officer, Siobhan Proctor, said.
EnviroWaste, which is contracted by several councils, recommended residents to "refer to their individual council website for the most up-to-date information".
The capital's not alone in its struggle to keep services going, with the Taupō District Council informing residents in some areas on Friday that their recycling would be picked up by a rubbish truck. They were asked to stockpile if possible.
Proctor had a similar message for Wellingtonians, saying, "If they really want to ensure that their recycling goes to the recycling plant, hold on it as long as they can, same as glass."
Resident Shawn Condon's planning to stockpile until there's assurance from the council that his recycling won't go to landfill.
"We did this the first lockdown with the glass not being collected."
He said he's also making changes at home when it comes to how much waste he generates.
"So just being a bit more thoughtful, like if we're going to the butcher rather than the supermarket, how the meat is packaged - if it's coming in paper or plastic wrappers."
Glass, plastic and cans aren't being collected in Hawke's Bay now either.
Hastings District Council group manager asset management, Craig Thew, said, “We can continue taking paper and cardboard because it requires less sorting on collection."
“We hope that things will return to normal within a few weeks and thank residents for their understanding and patience during this trying time,” Napier City Council acting director infrastructure, Debra Stewart, added.
Tauranga's stopped collecting its residents' glass and food scraps due to a lack of drivers.
A number of trucks are parked up near Trustpower arena, out of action.
"Unfortunately there's all these trucks here, wishing they were on the streets collecting," the city council's sustainability and waste manager, Sam Fellows, said.
He said two services they've cut are person-intensive as there are often two drivers.
Residents in Christchurch are being urged to only put their bins out if they are full, while Hamilton City Council's cut its food scrap collections service too.
Recycling's still operating in our biggest city, although around 15 drivers are currently isolating due to Covid-19.
Auckland Council's waste manager, Parul Sood, said it's about reprioritising services.
"It's about going what can we stop. We've paused the inorganics collections for a little while we have resources to ensure the essential collections are done."
She says it's devastating when recycling ends up in the landfill, but "we are facing some real challenging situations at the moment".
Proctor hopes Wellington's waste services won't need to be cut further, but says there are contingency plans.
She wasn't sure when recycling services would be fully restored but said the "best case would be two weeks, worst would be six weeks".
Tauranga expects it will struggle for another month or so.
"We're hoping not to have to go to lower services," Fellows said. "Hopefully this is about as bad as it's going to get."
He's concerned the changes will result in people losing their good recycling habits.
"We saw from lockdown when we weren't picking up garden waste it took us a long time to get back to the levels we saw beforehand."
Councils are doing all they can to ensure general rubbish collections aren’t disrupted.
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