FAQS

Soft plastics cannot be recycled as part of our residential kerbside recycling service because they are often made of different types of plastics, making them difficult and expensive to recycle. They can also get caught in and damage the machinery, or mistaken in the machinery’s sorting process as paper/cardboard. This leads to contamination of the paper/cardboard recycling. The Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme continues to collect soft plastics s from nine selected Countdown and The Warehouse stores in Hamilton.

Yes, pizza boxes will be recycled in the yellow-lid wheelie bin, along with other paper and cardboard, plastics 1-7, tins and cans. Please make sure you remove any chunks of food and cheese from your pizza box before putting it in the bin.

The green recycling crate will be used for glass recycling only in the new service. If you have more than one green crate at home, please note that from 1 July 2020 residents will only be able to put one crate out for collection (for glass recycling only).

In the new service, residents will be able to put out one crate of glass recycling each fortnight. For most residents this should be sufficient, however if you have excess recycling it can be dropped off for free at the Lincoln St Transfer Station.

Placed side by side, all four bins will only take up approximately 2m in length. They’re weather and animal proof (including a lockable lid on the food scraps bin), so they can be stored outside or inside. Residents from other cities who are already using wheelie bins store them by or in the garage or shed, by the back door, or at the end of the driveway.

You will never have to put all four bins out at once. Rubbish and recycling bin collections are fortnightly (on alternate weeks). Glass recycling is also fortnightly, and the food scraps bin will be collected weekly. The highest number of bins you will need to put out is three – rubbish wheelie bin and food scraps one week, recycling wheelie bin, glass crate and food scraps the next.

We're aware that for some dwellings, like those with shared driveways, flats down a right of way, or those on a cul-de-sac, kerbside space may be shared by multiple sets of bins. We're working to identify these areas and provide solutions, for example sharing sets of bins for flats/multi-unit dwellings.

We understand that for some multi-unit dwellings or flats, storage space may be limited. We’re currently working with our contractor to assess multi-unit dwellings on a case-by-case basis. We’re looking into various possible service solutions and will be contacting property managers, owners and body corporates as necessary. We’ve also been working alongside the Council’s planning department to educate developers about the new service, aiming to mitigate storage problems where possible for future developments.

We’re working on a process for assisted collections for those residents who are genuinely unable to manage the bins. This will be available to eligible residents and involves the waste collector coming onto the property, moving the bins and crate to the truck for emptying, and returning them to the property. More information about this and how to apply will become available in early 2020.

Ratepayers will be able to opt out of the service. We will arrange to collect all your bins, however you will still be rated for rubbish and recycling.

By opting out, you won't be receiving a kerbside rubbish and recycling collection service, and you won't be able to opt in to receive part of the new service.

There are private rubbish and recycling services available in Hamilton that you can organise at your own additional expense.

All households will be receiving same size bins, which are assigned to the property, not the individual. With the new service, collections are fortnightly - except for food scraps, which are collected weekly. If you produce very little waste, you can put out your bins monthly or whenever they're full.

At this stage, inorganic and electronic waste collections are not part of the new service. Residents will need to continue disposing of these materials privately. More information about how to dispose of your inorganic and electronic waste can be found here.

We encourage residents to use newspaper or brown paper if they want to line their food scraps bin, rather than plastic or compostable bags. This is to lower the risk of contaminating our food scraps composting system, because New Zealand does not currently have a standard for compostable or biodegradable plastics. As a result there is a lot of confusion around what can/cannot compost or biodegrade, so it's safer to leave these materials out.

You can continue with your home composting, and use the food scraps bin for items that are not easily composted, such as meat, small bones, vacuum cleaner dust and shellfish. The food scraps bin is assigned to the property, not the individual. If you still don't want to use the food scraps bin, please store it somewhere in your home.

Nappies go in the red lid rubbish bin. A ‘Community Nappy Trial’ conducted by Lake Macquarie City Council in Australia showed that the odour of bins containing nappies at the end of a fortnight were no worse than the odour of regular general waste bins at the end of a week. The trial also showed that odour does not significantly increase with time, nor with the number of nappies in the bin. But in the summer months, there are a number of things you can do to minimise the odour in your bin:

• Wrap the nappy into itself using the tabs.
• Seal nappies tightly in brown paper bags before placing in the bin.
• Store the red lid rubbish bin in the shade and out of direct sunlight, if possible.
• Consider using odour neutralising products in your red lid bin, for example bicarbonate of soda. Or add a couple of drops of lavender or tea tree oil to the top of the lid.
• If possible, tip the contents of the nappy down the toilet before disposing.
• Consider using modern cloth nappies, which are a cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative to disposable nappies – and they won’t fill up your bin.

These measures seem to be working really well in other parts of New Zealand, where fortnightly collections have already been introduced.