Whanganui new kerbside service collects 80 tonnes of recycling in first two weeks

One of the recycling trucks at Castlecliff.

Since its inception two weeks ago, Whanganui’s new kerbside service has collected nearly 80 tonnes of recycling.

Whanganui District Council’s community property and places general manager Sarah O’Hagan said people had done well to clean and separate their recycling well.

“Based on information from other councils that have rolled out services like this, we expected the first few weeks – if not months – to be quite hectic as the community got their heads around the new system. But we must be pretty smart cookies in Whanganui because households have got it right from day dot,” she said.

“The team at Low Cost Bins has been fantastic to work with so far and the feedback we’re getting from the community is that they’re out and about with smiles on their faces doing a great job – despite the icy weather. We’ve had very few complaints or reports of missed collections, so that’s encouraging.”

O’Hagan said there had been a few teething issues, including people attempting to recycle lids and stack crates too high.

“We get it that the lids thing is confusing. For years we’d been taught it’s fine to recycle plastic lids – and that’s only changed very recently following new Ministry for the Environment rules for kerbside recycling. But even in the second week, we found most people had quickly adjusted.”

The decision to change guidelines around lids was due to recycling processing plants sometimes having issues with lids falling into machinery due to their thinness, she said.

“Basically, this means you can’t recycle any lids at kerbside. The only exception to that rule is with tin can lids. It is okay to recycle tin can lids as long as the lid is still attached to the can and is folded back into the can [for safety].”

The other minor issue is crate stacking, with a few instances of crates toppling over.

“Again, this is understandable, as we’ve been encouraging people to stack their heaviest crate over their lightest one on windy days. However, people should only stack two crates high – not all three – and the bottom crate shouldn’t be too full.”