Rubbish bags, clothing and rotting food were just some of the items discovered in recycling bins this week on what has been dubbed the "worst day" for contamination.
On Monday, recycling inspectors found 37 per cent of bins or 100 of 270 bins inspected were non-compliant and contain blatant non-recyclable material.
Waipā District Council roading operations team leader Jennifer Braithwaite said it was the worst results to date.
“Contamination like this is absolutely unacceptable and is a let-down for the entire district.
“If collected, it would have resulted in a significant amount of recycling going to landfill which comes at a massive cost to ratepayers.”
Braithwaite said the results clearly illustrated the need for full time recycling bin inspectors.
“The inspectors are doing an absolutely fantastic job and have already prevented a huge amount of contamination from being collected.”
Recycling bins found with contamination are not collected and stickered to indicate what the contaminate was.
In cases of serious contamination, such as when food or medical waste is found, properties stickered on two separate occasions risk having their service suspended.
To date, Council has suspended its recycling service to 22 properties.
Once service is suspended, the property owner is required to make a pledge to Council not to put contamination in their recycling. If their service is returned, it will be checked prior to every future collection.
