Waitomo District Council staff will soon undertake ad hoc audits of kerbside recycling bins in an effort to understand the levels of contamination that is occurring.

Recycling bin audits help to educate about what can – and can’t – be recycled. It also helps Council to identify the problem areas so that staff can design education and community engagement projects to turn those stats around.

General Manager Infrastructure Services, Shyamal Ram says all recycling must be clean to be recycled.

“That means giving jars and food tins a decent scrub out, so that no food remains,” he says.

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

“If your recycling is dirty, it can’t be processed and will have to be sent to a landfill. 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.”

Shyamal says for the most part, residents have been doing the right thing and placing the correct recycling into the bin.

“Unfortunately, a small number of people are putting the wrong things into their recycling, and 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.”

Residents may notice a sticker on their recycling bin which identifies if there is contamination. The item/s will either need to be cleaned or disposed of as general waste.

What can I recycle?

The following items can be placed in your recycling bin:

• clean paper, flattened cardboard and pizza boxes (stack inside or next to bin)
• clean cans and tins
• plastics that have been cleaned and have the recycling triangle 1 , 2 or 5 on them, no lids please
• empty, clean glass bottles and jars

Read more about recycling