Let’s get Westland’s Recycling Recycled!
4 June 2020
When we travelled the district discussing Community Outcomes Westland District residents let Council know how important recycling and reducing waste is to them.
Unfortunately, over the past couple of months a lot of recycling bins have been contaminated, which means that nothing in that bin is recycled and is sent to landfill instead. In May alone 69 bins were not collected because the driver spotted contamination. If enough contaminated bins are collected (about 15 – 20%) the recycling facility will reject the entire shipment. All of the recycling collected between 18 – 21 May was rejected; that was 14.5 tonnes of recycling sent to landfill costing ratepayers approximately $1,200.
Items that cause contamination in your recycling bin include dirty recyclable items, kitchen waste, green waste, gas bottles, glass, plastics 3, 6 and 7 (check the item for a plastic number). If in doubt, put the item in the rubbish bin.
You can put the following clean items into your recycling bin:
- Cardboard
- Plastic containers and bottles (numbered 1, 2, 4 and 5)
- Metal tins and cans
- Paper
Help your neighbours who do the right thing with recycling and commit to only putting appropriate items into your yellow bin.
You can put non-recyclable rubbish into your green bin or take it to your local transfer station.
Photo by tanvi sharma on Unsplash
