From tomorrow New Zealanders will have new standardised recycling guidelines to follow — however, there is still some confusion for Kiwis who may not know which items belong in kerbside recycling bins.
Previously, local council collections stipulated the rules for what was accepted in different regions but it's hoped the new rules will reduce disposal costs and increase the quality of materials collected for recycling across the country.
From Thursday, all of NZ will have the same rules about what can, and can’t, be put in the bins. (Source: Breakfast)
Auckland Council's Parul Sood joined Breakfast host Daniel Faitaua this morning to sort through some of the household items no longer allowed in the bins — including coffee cups, plastic lids and liquid paperboard which is what many alternative milk cartons are made from.
"Your recycling bin is for your containers, for your packaging from the kitchen, laundry and toilet," she began.
Sood, the general manager of Waste Solutions, emphasised most of the "big changes" to plastic recycling can be sorted simply by taking the time to find the small plastic code on the packaging.
She demonstrated using a margarine container that has a five stamped on the bottom, and gave another example of a meat tray with the number on the corner.
"All you need to remember is it's one, two and five — that is all that goes into the bin, nothing else. All the other numbers go in your rubbish bin," she said.
She said simplifying labelling is a "key way" to ease confusion for the average person.
From February 1 the majority of the country will be doing kerbside recycling the same way. (Source: 1News)
"Labelling is a really key one when it comes to recycling, to cut the confusion out. And we have been advocating to central government to make that happen," she said. "So hopefully, one day, the labelling will be much easier".
By weight, 24% of the material collected in Auckland's kerbside recycling is contaminated with items such as clothes, nappies, soft plastics and bagged rubbish.
"We are needing to learn more because, if we are looking at the contamination rates in Auckland, they are quite high," Sood said.
Contamination costs Auckland ratepayers an extra $3 million per year in sorting and disposal.
Sood said taking a "little bit of time" to look for the correct number and properly remove food residue from the packaging helps future generations down the track.
"We are wanting to make sure resources out there are being used to their optimal best," she said.
"Just give it a rinse out, it doesn't take that long."
What goes in the bin?
Items that will be accepted in kerbside recycling bins from February 1 include:
- Glass bottles and jars
- Paper and cardboard
- Plastic bottles, trays, and containers (grades 1, 2 and 5 only)
- Tin, steel and aluminium cans.
There are also some new items that will be excluded from February 1:
- Items less than 50mm (e.g caps, small cosmetic and spice containers)
- Aerosol cans (steel and aluminium)
- Liquid paperboard (Tetrapak milk and juice boxes)
- Plastics 3, 4, 6 and 7
- Aluminium foil and trays
- All lids
- Items over 4 litres.
For more information on the new recycling guidelines, see the Auckland Council website.
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