Think you know what goes in Waipā's new recycling bins? Now you can play an online game and pit your knowledge against friends, family and neighbours.
As part of Waipa District Council's move to a new recycling service on 1 July, an online recycling game has been created to make it clear what can and can't go in wheelie bins. Residents have a 240-litre yellow bin for plastics 1-7, tins, cans, paper and cardboard and a 140-litre blue bin for glass bottles and jars.
The game tests people's knowledge on what goes into which wheelie bin and what must go into the separate private rubbish collection.
Service delivery group manager, Barry Bergin, said the recycling game was a fun way to help educate people on recycling and avoid items going in the wrong wheelie bin.
We need to minimise contamination as much as possible. When non-recyclable items get mixed in with recycling it could result in an entire truckload of recycling going to landfill. If broken glass is mixed in with the plastics for example, it's difficult to separate and dangerous for workers at the sorting plant.
Bergin said contaminated recycling was also worth less on the global market and would ultimately cost the ratepayers more to run the service.
Our new trucks are fitted with a camera system so the driver can see what is in each wheelie bin while it is being emptied into the truck. If they spot something that shouldn't be there, they will immediately stop emptying the bin and will leave it on the kerbside for you to dispose of.
A Waipā rubbish audit completed in 2017 showed 16.7 per cent of what was put in the rubbish was recyclable. This meant approximately 1.5kg of recycling per household, per week was going to landfill unnecessarily.
We want to make recycling easier and help people to understand how it all works so more recycling ends up getting made into something new. Get your family and friends involved, play the game and see how your knowledge stacks up.
The game is available at recyclewaipa.co.nz and accessible via Council's website.