Plastics Recycling FAQs

Historically there has been an overseas demand for plastic grades 3-7. However the demand collapsed after China (who used to buy 50 percent of the world’s recycling), no longer accepted the quantity of material they used to.

Many New Zealand sorting centres, including Kopu, were stockpiling grades 3-7 in the hopes the market would re-open, but this has never eventuated.

Without an overseas or local buyer it is no longer practical or cost effective to collect or stockpile these plastics.

Absolutely, and we encourage you to recycle clean rigid plastic grades 1, 2 and 5 as much as you can to ensure these fully recyclable items do not end up in landfill or polluting waterways.

Soft plastics (plastic bags) can go into the soft plastics bin at Countdown in Paeroa.

• drink and sports bottles
• water bottles,
• milk bottles,
• cleaning products and personal care bottles (shampoo, conditioner and body wash),
• ice cream tubs,
• margarine tubs,
• large yoghurt tubs,
• take-out containers (not polystyrene),
• prescription bottles

Automated sorting systems identify items by shape. When a milk bottle or aluminium can is flattened, it can look like a piece of cardboard and end up in the wrong recycling stream. This isn't good as it wastes time and labour (which is money) if the items have to be retrieved manually for sorting.

The best way to recycle plastic bottles and cans is to rinse them out, take any lids off (they go in your rubbish bin) and keep their shape - don't squash or flatten them. It's tempting because it creates more room in your wheelie bin but keep them whole and maximise their recycling potential.

Plastic bags and plastic wrapping are soft and cannot go into your recycle bin. Examples of soft plastics are:

• Bread bags
• Soft produce bags
• Frozen food bags
• Bags and wrappers for toilet paper, cereals, snack foods, and dairy products
• Lightly foiled bags e.g. chip packets and confectionery
• Courier packs
• Bubble wrap
• Garden potting mix bags
• Dry pet food bags

Soft plastics can go into the soft plastics bin at:

• New World, Waihī
• Countdown, Paeroa
• Four Square, Ngātea
• Four Square, Paeroa
• Hauraki Reuse and Repair Centre, Paeroa
• Council Refuse Transfer Stations, Paeroa and Waihī
• Council Service Centres - Paeroa, Ngātea, Waihī.

No, all this recycling will be considered contamination and end up in landfill. We know it’s hard to put these in to the rubbish bin when you’ve been able to recycle them up until now, but the reality is, these can’t recycled – they’ve just been piling up in storage.

Please don’t ‘wishcycle’ and place plastic grades 3,4,6,7 into your recycling bin because you wish it can be recycled, or in the hope it might get recycled. It won’t be.

Waste Management NZ, our kerbside collection contractors, will be auditing wheelie bins. If your bin contains anything except clean rigid plastic grades 1, 2 and 5, paper, cardboard, clean tins or aluminium cans, it will get an orange ticket and will not be collected by contractors until the bin is cleaned out and is once again compliant.

No, your rubbish and recycling is still being collected, sorted and recycled. We will still get a bill from the contractors for this service, and we still have to pay it.

No, as there is no viable market for these plastics, plastic grades 3, 4, 6,7 will not be accepted and should go in your Para | rubbish bin.

All plastic grades 3, 4, 6,7 will now need to go into your Para | Rubbish bin for collection. Please do not burn these plastics; this is more harmful to the environment.

Recyling isn’t the only answer to reducing household waste. The best approach is to follow the waste hierarchy:

• Refuse: simply don’t buy it and research sustainable alternatives
• Reduce: minimise the amount you buy
• Reuse: choose products you can use again and again (make your own yoghurt instead of individual yoghurt pottles and put a serving size in a reusable container – add frozen berries to keep cool in lunchboxes)
• Recycle: reprocess to produce new products
• Regenerate: Place organic waste into a compost bin for the vegetable garden, add to a worm farm or have organic waste collected by a green waste company

We have a joint approach with Matamata-Piako and Thames-Coromandel District Councils, so they are also only accepting rigid plastic grades 1,2 & 5. Waipa District Council have also recently made this change, as have many other Councils around the country (like Gisborne, Queenstown, South Waikato, Porirua, Napier, Nelson, and more).

• We know we need to lead by example.
• Our Councillors have gone paperless, wherever practicable. Our boardroom is now digital, so gone are the days of paper agendas. Council departments are also following suit and reducing or eliminating all paper, instead using digital options wherever possible.
• We help fund Enviroschools, teaching sustainability to our tamariki.
• We have a Solid Waste Working party that oversees the solid waste contract and is actively looking for ways our communities can reduce waste heading for landfill and ensure our Transfer Stations are working to their greatest potential, making that experience easy for all its users and as environmentally friendly as possible.
• Our Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (WMMP) is our plan for reducing waste to landfill and minimising the harmful effects of waste in our district. The plan contains an overview of the waste issues we’re facing in our district, with our goals, objectives, and action plan to achieve them.