Getting your recycling right

Rise and shine

On your recycling collection days, please make sure your wheelie bin is out on the kerb by 7am.

The Waipā District Council logo should be facing the road and be as close to the kerb as possible. Your wheelie bin should be at least one bin space away from all other wheelie bins or objects, such as trees or light poles, to allow the recycling truck to lift it safely. Our trucks use mechanical arms that need a bit of space to operate safely and cleanly (and not knock over other wheelie bins!).

Missed collections

If your whole street has been missed, please give us a call to let us know.

If it's just your bin, check for a sticker or a note in your letter box. You may have something in there that can’t be recycled, causing your bin to be left behind on purpose.

If you feel you have done everything correctly, and it should have been collected, please give us a call. All our trucks have GPS tracking so we will be able to see if they went down your street and collected other bins. If we can see the truck did pick up neighbouring bins, we cannot ask the contractor to return.

You’ll need to wait until your next recycling collection or take your recycling to your nearest transfer station and dispose of it there.

Do I take the wheelie bins when I move house?

No. The wheelie bins are the property of Council and must stay at their assigned address to be used for kerbside collection. If your new property does not have wheelie bins, contact the seller or the landlord in the first instance.

New builds

If you’ve recently built a new house, please contact us and request a wheelie bin service.

An invoice for the remaining number of complete months of recycling services will be sent to you for payment. This is a pro-rata calculation based on the full year charge. Once we receive payment, wheelie bins will be delivered to your property within 10 working days. Please wait until you are living in the property and can secure the bins upon delivery before contacting us. It is not advisable to leave wheelie bins in empty houses.

I have moved into a new home, there are no wheelie bins here. What do I do?

If this is an existing building (not a new build) please contact your landlord or the seller in the first instance and ask them to track down the wheelie bins that were there. All properties in Waipā had a set of wheelie bins delivered in July 2019 and the serial numbers were recorded against that address.  If you are a landlord, call us for the bin serial numbers to help you locate them. If they can’t be found or recovered from previous tenants, they will need to be replaced by the ratepayer of the property.

Extra recycling

If your wheelie bin is too full and the lid can’t close completely, it will not be collected.

This is because when the truck lifts it up, recycling may fall out. Extra items placed next to or on top of the wheelie bin will also not be collected. If you have too much recycling to fit in your wheelie bin, try some of these tips:

  • Break down or flatten your cardboard (or consider using it in your compost!)
  • Take some recycling to your local transfer station, or hold it for your next collection
  • Check you haven’t put a large hard plastic item in there

I live down a long rural driveway – where do I put my bins during the rest of the week?

You are welcome to store the wheelie bins inside your property boundary, close to the end of your driveway. You can use a small container (perhaps your old blue crate) to ferry your recycling to the wheelie bins. Your wheelie bins need to be stored within your property. Wheelie bins are not able to be stored on public land, on the berm, or on the road. 

Bin audits

When rubbish or items that can’t be recycled are put into your wheelie bins, it can contaminate the whole load of recycling in the truck.

If these items pose a health and safety risk, then it costs a lot of time and money to shut down the sorting facility and deep clean everything before work can resume… and then there’s all the landfill fees. Because of this, we conduct bin audits of your recycling to help educate about what can – and can’t – be recycled. It also helps us to identify the problem areas so that we can design education and community engagement projects to turn those stats around.

For the most part, residents have been doing the right thing and placing the correct recycling into the right bins. Unfortunately, a small number of people are putting the wrong things into their recycling. We have found items such as soft plastics, shower heads, paint tins, glass jars with lids on, dirty recycling and even full bags of rubbish. While there may only be small quantities of contamination, they compromise other recycling and can lead to a whole truck load going to landfill. It doesn't take much contamination to cause a problem.

How do you carry out the bin audits?

We get a good look inside the wheelie bin by tipping it forwards and moving the materials around with a hand trowel. The auditor records any photos of contamination and completes the paperwork then and there, so you’ll be advised on the day if there are any changes to your service.

If you are a bit confused about which plastics are accepted in your kerbside recycling, or you put items like coffee cups, plastic bags, Tetra Paks, or dirty or wet paper in your wheelie bin, we will put a WHOOPS! sticker on your bin and leave an education flyer underneath your bin lid. If this continues, we will take further action such as leaving a formal warning and then eventually remove your service.

 

If you put anything in your yellow wheelie bins like fabric, food scraps, deck chairs, frying pans, or garden waste, this is considered general contamination. We will put a WHOOPS! sticker on your bin and issue a formal warning, which will be left underneath your bin lid. If this continues a second time, your service will be suspended.

If you put anything in your yellow wheelie bins like medical or sanitary waste, electronics, paint, large scrap metal, timber, concrete, or animal waste, we consider this extreme contamination and your wheelie bin will be removed immediately for a minimum of 3 months. You will receive a Suspension of Recycling Service letter from Council.

But if you’re a great recycler, we want you to know that too! You’ll receive a THANKS sticker on your bin. Ka pai and keep up the good work!

What do I do if a sticker has been put on my bin?

Please remove the contamination and dispose of it into your rubbish. The sticker and flyer that will be left underneath your bin lid will tell you what item needs to be removed. You can remove the sticker once you have taken the contaminated items out and put the bin on the kerbside for the next scheduled collection. If you leave the sticker on, the driver may think it’s been newly audited and will not collect it.

Worried about moving a full wheelie bin or have a disability?

Your wheelie bins don’t have to be full to be put out - we recommend you place them kerbside on your scheduled collection day even if its part full.

Those people unable to manage wheelie bins due to physical disabilities or impairments are able to apply for a free Council-funded assisted service. The assisted service will ensure wheelie bins are pushed to the kerbside for emptying and collection. They will be pushed back again once recycling has been collected. There is no charge for this extra help, but there are rules around who can access it. To find out more about the assisted recycling collection service and whether you are eligible, give us a call on 0800 WAIPA DC (0800 924 723).

Missing wheelie bins

If your recycling bins have gone missing or been damaged, there’s a couple of things you should do first.

Check with your neighbours to make sure they didn't accidentally take your bin, have a good look around your own section, and chat to everyone who lives there. If it still hasn’t turned up, give us a call to get a new one issued. Any replacement wheelie bins needed because of customer damage or loss will need to be requested and paid for by the property owner or property management company.

240L Mixed recycling wheelie bin: $79.00

140L Glass only wheelie bin: $68.50

This covers the manufacture, storage, delivery, onsite assembly, administration and updating of the serial number and chip identifier on Council and contractor systems.

If your bin has been damaged (run over, burnt etc.) the costs above also apply. The only time the cost is waived is if you see our recycling trucks doing the damage. Please note the exact time, licence plate, and any more details so we can check our GPS tracking and do an investigation.

What about businesses – can I get a kerbside recycling service?

Council does not currently provide a kerbside service for commercial or industrial premises. However, if you are a daycare, childcare or school, we can invoice you annually for this service. Please contact our Customer Support team on 0800 924 723 for more information.

Recycling contractors

The kerbside recycling service we provide throughout the district is paid for through your rates.

Metallic Sweeping Ltd are our current recycling providers and the service is available to residential properties subject to targeted rates.