Small number contaminating recycling cost those getting it right

Five percent of residents are costing ratepayers around $50,000 a month for not getting their recycling sorted.

Recent bin audits have showed a small number of residents are blatantly ignoring the rules, and Waipā District Council is pushing for this to change.

Waste minimisation advisor Shelley Wilson said people are adding gross contamination items to their recycling which, if not caught by the auditors, will send the whole truckload to landfill.

“Some obvious non-recyclable items have been found by our auditors, like medical waste, animal carcasses and food scraps.”

“It is not just redirecting contaminated recycling to landfill that costs ratepayers. Someone’s recycling included pieces of machinery metal. As they came across the sorting conveyer belt, they jammed into the chain drive and shut down the whole facility for four hours.”

Contamination is also a huge health and safety risk, as recycling is sorted by hand.

“Staff were even sprayed by a very nasty unidentified substance which shot out of the recycling bale while it was being compacted. While these are some extreme examples, most residents are only making a few mistakes that have a simple fix, like removing lids from bottles and rinsing containers,” Wilson said.

Central government introduced standardised recycling across the country in February, and though the changes were minimal for Waipā, behaviour change was not happening fast enough. For some, the only way to change their behaviour was to suspend their service.

“Our contractors have reported some of the lengths people go to avoid the auditors or the suspension of their collection, if they just put that effort into recycling right, we wouldn’t have such a problem.”

Recycling that is collected at kerbside is easy to remember - plastics with the recycling symbol and numbers 1, 2 or 5, tins, cans, paper, and cardboard.

To find out more about recycling in Waipā visit wastelesswaipa.co.nz