Te Puke Recycling Centre back to normal hours

Te Puke Recycling Centre has reverted to its normal opening days and times this week.

Normal service has been resumed at Te Puke recycling centre this week.

The centre will this week revert to its normal hours of Tuesday (8am-5pm), Thursday (8am-5pm) and Saturday (8am-4pm).

Western Bay of Plenty District Council's fortnightly rural recycling trial programme at BP Pongakawa will also run for two final weekends, operating on June 6 and 20. June 20 will mark the end of the programme's six-month trial period.

Council's utilities manager Kelvin Hill says it's great to be able to open all the council's centres after putting temporary opening hours at all recycle and greenwaste centres in place at alert levels 3 and 2.

"It's been a team effort to get all our centres up and running again. Staff have worked hard to provide a safe environment so we can offer this service and the public have been very patient and understanding.

"We aren't quite there yet with some restrictions on what can and can't be accepted but I'm pleased we are now in a position to reopen all four centres."

Restrictions that will remain in place include customers required to maintain a one-metre physical distance for safety reasons and staff not assisting customers with their recycling.

Only the following recycling items will be accepted: glass bottles and jars separated into colours, aluminium cans, tin cans, flattened corrugated cardboard, paper, including light card and egg cartons, clear plastic milk and cream bottles, Anchor light proof milk bottles and clear plastic drink bottles.

The following will still not be accepted as the council is not prepared to collect these plastics and then have to take them to the landfill, as this would end up being a cost on ratepayers: any coloured plastic bottles, plastic meat trays and punnets, plastic containers for margarine, yoghurt and ice cream

Greenwaste will not be accepted if it includes flax, pampas, bamboo, gorse or palms. (These are treated as normal refuse and not accepted at the recycling centres).

Greenwaste stem diameter must be no thicker than 100mm and the length no longer than 3m.

During the lockdown period the council collected 44.6 tonnes of mixed glass, 4.25 tonnes of cardboard and 9 tonnes of paper across the Katikati and Te Puke recycling centres. On average, 385 vehicles visited the centres on days the sites were open.