Recycling FAQ

You can download the Antenno App from the App Store or Google Play and save places you care about such as home, work, your holiday home, rental property or school. Ensure you enter your exact address so you receive the correct information.

You can also use our Recycling Day Finder or you can email your full physical address to calendars@waipadc.govt.nz or call our customer service team on 0800 WAIPADC (0800 924 723) to request a calendar

If your bin has been missed on your scheduled collection day, please check the following: will clear in the next recycling collection. Firstly, you need to check a few things:

1. Was your bin accessible? If there is a car parked too closely, or are there too many other bins close by? This can lead to the truck arm is not able to pick up your bin. This also applies to structures like power poles, streetlights, trees, waste bags etc. Please ensure your bin can be accessed by the recycling truck when you put it out, we suggest you look at alternative placement way from structures or with more space between other bins, on the berm, or further away from parked vehicles or car parks.
2. Has your bin knocked over? Drivers are unable to collect bins if they have been knocked over. It’s your responsibility to pick up contents of the bin and wait for the next collection day.
3. Was your bin too full? If the lid wasn’t closed due to being too full, the truck is unable to lift the bin without causing health and safety issues, for example spilling your recycling on the footpath or road.
4. Did you leave the lid open? This is the same as above. It’s too risky for the truck to lift your bin as recycling may spill.
5. Was there something on top of your bin? The truck arm is unable to remove anything from the bin, so would be unable to collect without spilling what has been left on top of it.
6. Has the rest of the street been collected? Did you put your bin out on time? Often the drivers won’t go back down a street to do the opposite side of the road if they’ve notice there are no bins out while collecting the first side of the road. Please put your bins kerbside by 7am.
7. Have you got the right day? You can check recycling collection finder tool or sign up to the Antenno app and we’ll send a reminder straight to your phone the day before your collection day.
8. Has your bin been stickered? If so, there may be a contaminated item / items in your bin. Take a look in your letter box to see if there is a pamphlet to tell you why your bin hasn’t been collected.

If our drivers are experiencing collection delays due to driver sickness, shortage or other disruptions, you can receive updates straight to your phone via the Antenno app. As soon as Council is notified of any disruptions, we will send an alert via the app.

So, if your bin hasn’t been collected and you believe it’s due to one of the reasons above, you will need to wait for the next recycling collection day for the bin to be cleared. If you can’t wait, you can take their recyclables to nearest transfer station, please note this will be a cost to you from that company.

If your missed collection doesn’t meet any of the above points and is more than 72 hours overdue, please contact our customer support team on 0800 WAIPADC (924 723) and let them know your property address and an update if other bins have been missed from your street. You can also report this information via the Antenno app.

If your bin’s wheels or lid are damaged, they will be fixed free of charge. Contact 0800 WAIPADC (924 723) to arrange this.

If there is damage to the body of your bin, please send a picture to info@waipadc.govt.nz, so we can evaluate the damage and see if it requires a repair or replacement.

If you're concerned about a missed bin or late collection, please call Council on 0800 WAIPADC (924 723) but only if the collection is 72 hours overdue. Reports of missed bins could also be filed on Council’s Antenno App.

Each household has two wheelie bins. The wheelie bin service is for all residential dwellings in the rural and urban areas.

One is a large, 240-litre bin for household plastics 1,2 and 5, tins, cans, paper and cardboard which has a yellow lid. The second is a smaller 140-litre wheelie bin, just for glass bottles and jars and has a blue lid.

Yes! Your recycling will continue to be collected like normal on public holidays. If your usual recycling collection day is on a public holiday, please put the bin out on the kerbside by 7am.

Please contact our customer support team and request a wheelie bin service.

An invoice for the remaining number of complete months of recycling service will be generated and sent to you for payment. This is a pro rata based off the full years charge of $125. Once Council receives payment, wheelie bins will be delivered to your property within 10 - 15 working days.

Please wait until you are living in the property and can secure the bins on delivery. It is not advisable to leave wheelie bins at vacant properties.

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 assigned to that property. All properties in Waipā had a set of wheelie bins delivered in July 2019 and the serial numbers were recorded against that property. They are to stay at the property.

Other councils around New Zealand have found theft of wheelie bins rare mostly due to their size. To reduce the risk of theft the new wheelie bins have prominent Waipā District Council branding, are printed with an individual serial number and have an embedded chip which can be scanned. These identifiers will be assigned to your property address. Stray wheelie bins will be able to be scanned and returned to their assigned address.

No. The wheelie bins are the property of Council and must stay at their assigned property 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, if you are renting, or if you own the house, call our customer service team on 0800 WAIPADC (924 723) to request new bins.

If your wheelie bin cannot be found, check with your neighbours to see they didn't accidentally take your bin, then give Council a call to get a new one issued.

Any replacement wheelie bins needed because of customer damage or loss will be charged to the ratepayer. The cost of a new bin is on our fees and charges page.

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

No. This does not mean you own the wheelie bins, they are the property of Council and assigned to the property. The charge covers the manufacture, storage, delivery, onsite assembly, administration and updating of the serial number and chip identifier on Council systems, not the bin itself.

No. According to Council's Solid Waste Management and Minimisation Bylaw 2018 customers are not able to provide their own wheelie bins. Council needs to make sure the wheelie bins are compatible with its recycling trucks and technology and to ensure there is no damage to trucks or danger to staff.

No, research shows there is plenty of capacity in the 140-litre wheelie bin. A bin bigger than 140-litres for glass will be too heavy for many people to easily move, and unsafe for the contractor.

If you have more glass recycling that the 140-litre bin can hold, you will need to take it to a transfer station as you do now. There may be a charge for that.

Remember that your wheelie bins do not have to be full before you put them out. You should put them out on every collection day. The footprint of the smaller wheelie bin is not significantly less than the larger one.

Some work needs to be done to assess the number of people who might like this to ensure manufacturing of a smaller bin is possible.

Recycling services are rated and available for all residential dwellings and separately used or inhabited part (SUIP) of a rating unit. If your body corporate has chosen a separate service provider additional to the kerbside collection, this is not refundable by Council.

Definition of a SUIP rating unit means:

• Any part of a rating unit that is separately used, or occupied, or capable of being separately used or occupied by the ratepayer.
• Any part of a rating unit that is separately used or occupied or is capable of being separately used or occupied by any person, other than the ratepayer.

The recycling rate is a targeted rate is set to fund the provision of a kerbside refuse recycling service to each household in the district. The targeted rate is a fixed amount of $125.00 inclusive of GST per separately used or inhabited part of a rating unit.

No. We understand how frustrating it can be that your recycling hasn’t been collected. However, your rates cover several services that council provides, and council is unable to provide refunds for this reason.

Those people unable to manage wheelie bins due to physical disabilities or impairments can 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 WAIPADC (924 723).

You are welcome to store the wheelie bins inside your property boundary, close to the end of your driveway. You can use your old blue crate to ferry your recycling to the wheelie bins as you used to do. Wheelie bins are not able to be stored on public land, on the berm or on the road. They do need to be stored in your property.

Since the Waipā Recycling Sorting Centre was completed in February 2020, all of Waipā’s mixed recycling is being hand sorted by a team of hardworking locals, right here in Te Awamutu.

Our glass bottles and jars are held onsite (so that we have enough to move it cost efficiently) and then transported O-I Glass in Auckland. They are New Zealand's only glass bottle and jar manufacturer and have been operating since 1922. Read more on their website: O-I Glass.

Recycling in Waipā is generally only sent to landfill if it is contaminated or if it is the incorrect material such as plastic grades 3, 4, 6 and 7.

Contamination includes things like dirty cans and tins, greasy and unclean cardboard, green waste, clothing and general waste.

Currently this service is not provided, however it's possible there may also be recycling wheelie bins for commercial and industrial premises in the future.

We would need to talk directly to businesses to see if they'd be prepared to pay for the recycling wheelie bin service, as this is not covered by household rates.

This would be funded via a new targeted rate on all commercial and industrial properties.

Yes, we will invoice you annually for the recycling services. Please contact our Customer Support team to organise this on 0800 924 723.

Yes absolutely! Council will continue to raise awareness about waste minimisation. This programme is funded by the government, via the Ministry for the Environment. You can take a look at what Council is doing to minimise waste in the district here.

If we can minimise the consumption of products like lower grade plastics, we can lessen our impact on the environment, and protect ourselves from market charges in the recycling and waste sectors.