Castlecliff first suburb to receive crates for Whanganui’s new kerbside recycling service

Low Cost Bins' Chris Ohlson delivering crates in Castlecliff this week. Photo / Bevan Conley

The rollout of Whanganui’s new kerbside recycling collection service is under way, with Castlecliff residents the first to receive crates.

About 17,000 households will have crates delivered over the next five weeks - suburb by suburb.

Whanganui District Council property and open spaces general manager Sarah O’Hagan said people should expect to receive three black recycling crates, an information booklet and a fridge magnet.

“We’re encouraging people to read their information booklets carefully to learn about the new system - especially in terms of what they can and can’t recycle,” she said.

“We would also like to remind people that while they may have their crates very soon, the collection service doesn’t begin until the first week of July.

“So don’t put your crates out for collection until then.”

Low Cost Bins is the contractor for the new service, which will include assistance for people, such as the elderly or disabled people, who might struggle to get crates to the kerb.

O’Hagan said the council would contact households next month to confirm the specific recycling collection days for their street.

“For most households, it will be one business day before their usual general waste collection day.”

The service will be available for people living in Whanganui’s wider urban area, including larger rural settlements such as Fordell, Mowhanau and Marybank.

Residents in the service areas cannot opt out and a targeted rate will be in place, costing about $2.75 a week per household.

Of the council’s proposed 10.6 per cent rates increase for 2024/25, about 2.4 per cent is made up of the new kerbside recycling service.

Last year, the Government announced kerbside recycling collection needed to be available to all urban households by 2027.

Each crate is 50 litres, with one for plastics labelled numbers one, two and five, tins and cans, another for glass jars and bottles, and a third for paper and cardboard.

If required, multiple crates can be used for the same recycling group.

Crates need to be put out between 5pm the night before collection day and 7am on collection day.

In February, council waste adviser Stuart Hylton said the council had worked with Hastings District Council on the new service because “their methodology is exactly the same as ours” and also utilised three crates instead of a wheelie bin.

“The contamination rates [in Hastings] are very, very low - the lowest in the country,” Hylton said.

The Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre will remain open to the public after the kerbside service begins and will aggregate all recyclable materials collected by Low Cost Bins as part of the kerbside service.

O’Hagan said following Castlecliff, the next suburb to receive crates would be Gonville.

As of February 1, Whanganui was one of only eight of New Zealand’s 78 local authorities yet to implement a full kerbside recycling service.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.