Whanganui’s new kerbside recycling service ready to go
Published on 25 June 2024
With just under a week to go until our new kerbside recycling service kicks off, Whanganui District Council and the team at Low Cost Bins are gearing up to begin collections – and sending out a few final reminders on how to recycle correctly.
The first day of collections will be Monday, 1 July and the council’s general manager community, property and places, Sarah O’Hagan, says for most households, recycling will be collected one business day before their usual rubbish day.
“That means if your rubbish is normally collected on a Tuesday, your recycling day should be Monday – or if your rubbish day is Monday, your recycling day will likely be Friday. However, there are a few grey areas with streets on the fringes of collection zones or areas with multiple rubbish days – so households should now have received letters from us to confirm their collection days.”
Sarah O’Hagan says while the council waste team is very excited to get the new service underway, they also recognise that the first few weeks will be a bit of a learning curve for everyone.
“With a brand-new service like this, involving more than 17,000 households, there’s always likely to be a few teething issues. So, we’re urging people to carefully read through the information booklet they received – or visit the recycling page on the council website – to ensure they have a good understanding of how to recycle correctly.”
By now, all households in the service area should have received three recycling crates. Anyone who hasn’t should contact the council by emailing yourcouncil@whanganui.govt.nz – or report the issue via the free Antenno app.
When people put recyclables into crates, they need to be separated:
- plastics 1, 2, 5 and tins and cans go into one crate
- glass bottles and jars go into the next crate
- paper and cardboard go into the third crate.
Sarah O’Hagan says if need be, people can use more than one crate for one of the groups. For example, they could put out two crates of glass if they had a big load of bottles in a given week. However, people need to remember they can’t mix different groups in the same crate.
“To make sure as much as of the material collected as possible is recycled, it’s crucial that people take care to separate their material into the correct groups – as well as washing out any food or residue and removing lids.
“Our recycling trucks have multiple compartments to keep the different materials separated.”
As well as separating materials carefully – and taking care to not include products that can’t be recycled – Sarah O’Hagan says people should avoid overfilling their crates and ensure they place them at the kerb correctly.
“If you fill a crate past the top, it can pose a safety risk to our contractors – and will also mean materials are more prone to being blown out by the wind. If you put out a crate out that’s filled past the top, you risk it not being collected. People should also take care to place their crates as close to the kerbside as possible to avoid blocking the footpath.”
For more information on kerbside recycling, including a full list of what you can and can’t recycle and details about support services for people who will struggle to take their crates to the kerb, visit whanganui.govt.nz/recycling
For more information on Antenno, visit: whanganui.govt.nz/Online-Services/Antenno