Glass recycling temporarily suspended

Council has temporarily suspended glass recycling services across the district to get on top of overdue collections.

For three months Council’s contractor, Metallic Sweeping has been struggling with driver illness and a nationwide shortage of Class 4 truck drivers. It has come to a head this week, forcing Waipā District Council to take drastic action.

From today, Waipā residents are being asked to not put out their recycled glass (blue-top) bins. If blue- topped bins are currently on the roadside, they should be taken back into sections.

Over coming weeks, contractors will focus on picking up just the mixed recycling (yellow-topped) bins, only. By temporarily suspending the glass recycling service, contractors will concentrate on getting up-to-date with mixed recycling. Yellow-topped bins should continue to be put out on the scheduled day.

The suspension of the glass recycling service is likely to be in place in until the end of this month, when normal service should return.

Transportation manager Bryan Hudson said contractors had soldiered on as best they could but a short-term change was needed.

“They have done all they can to keep on top of it, but we’ve had to make a call. Truck drivers need a break as well,” Hudson said.

“We appreciate this might be inconvenient for some and we apologise for that. But we’re better off taking this action now, and getting back on top of things than simply falling further and further behind. But the end of the month, we hope things will be back to normal.”

Residents can help by:

• Only putting out yellow topped bins if they are at least half-full. Fewer bins will mean quicker pick up.
• Ensuring there is adequate space between the bins and clear of parked cars so they can be easily grabbed by the truck.
• Placing all bins on level, stable ground.