City says Hamiltonians have embraced new rubbish and recycling service

No more black bags: Hamilton's new bins includes a large yellow wheelie recycling bin, a smaller red rubbish wheelie bin and a food waste bin. Photo / Supplied

It's been more than three weeks since Hamilton's new rubbish and recycling service kicked off – the biggest service change for the city in 20 years.

The city council says Hamiltonians have embraced the changes by taking the time to sort which items go in each bin, reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill.

The new service allows residents to sort their recyclable and non-recyclable items between four bins.

The council will leave stickers on bins that have been incorrectly put out for collection with reasons as to why they were not collected. Photo / Supplied

Hamilton City Council city water compliance manager Trent Fowles says although change is never easy, when used correctly, the new service will have a huge impact on our environment.

"This service change is a great initiative for the city and is a massive stride forward to achieving our 10-year goal of diverting 150,000,000kg of waste from landfill and it's great to see the community getting on board.

"In the first three weeks we've diverted more than 315,000kg of food scraps from going to landfill, and each week we continue to maintain these high diversion rates," Fowles says.

To help keep the momentum going, here's a few extra tips to help everyone fight the landfill next week, and for years to come:

• If we missed your bin and you don't know why, leave it on the kerb

Our contractors are working hard to ensure they collect the thousands of bins on our kerbside but occasionally some may be missed.

If this happens, check the side of the bins to see if they have been stickered – this will let you know why it wasn't collected.

Due to the impressive number of people using the new food scraps service, our contractors have a backlog of collections and may miss your food scraps bin on its collection day. Please leave it out on the kerb and it will be collected as soon as possible.

If any of your bins haven't been picked up after 48 hours, you can report a missed collection on fightthelandfill.co.nz or by contacting the Customer Services team on 07 838 6699.

• No more black bags

Our streets are looking tidier than ever as we all begin using our new bins instead of bags. Remember black bags put on the kerbside will no longer be collected, so you'll need to put them in your red rubbish wheelie bin. Better still, don't use them at all.

When bin liners such as black bags are used in the yellow recycling wheelie bin or food scraps bin, it can cause contamination and can result in the whole truckload going to landfill – something we really want to avoid.

You can line these bins with paper towels, newspaper, or with the brown paper bags you get from the supermarket.

• Put your bins out the right way at the right time

You never have to put all four bins out at once, and with alternating rubbish weeks and recycling weeks you want to make sure the right bins are on the kerb by 7am, so they get collected.

One of the new electric rubbish trucks now operating in Hamilton. Photo / Supplied

To help our truck drivers pick up your bins safely, please make sure the Fight the Landfill logo is facing the road and there's at least a 0.5m gap around each bin.

This will make it easier for our drivers and stop bins getting damaged. A handy hint is that if you can walk between the bins, then you've left enough space.

Your existing recycling crate is now used for glass recycling such as jars and bottles, and each household can only put out one glass crate each fortnight as part of your yellow recycling week.

You can check what bins to put out when by heading to fighthelandfill.co.nz and entering your address into our simple collection day tool. It will let you know what bins to put out for each week for the coming fortnight and you can check anytime.

The fleet of new recycling and rubbish trucks now working in Hamilton. Photo / Supplied

You can also receive collection day reminders by downloading the free app Antenno from Google Play or the App Store. It will send you a notification the day before to remind you which bins to put on the kerb by 7am.

• Check what items go in each bin

Every item has its place, so double check what goes where by using our handy sorter tool on fighthelandfill.co.nz. Enter the item and our sorter tool will let you know what bin to put it into.

When the wrong items are put in the incorrect bin it can cause contamination which may mean an entire truckload going to landfill – something we really want to avoid.

• For everything you need to know about the new service and ways to minimise your waste, head to fightthelandfill.co.nz and check out our great resources.