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Rubbish & Recycling

Waste management facilities

Council owns and operates transfer stations in Tokoroa and Putāruru. Greenwaste mulching takes place in Tokoroa. All of these sites are managed for Council by private operators in accordance with appropriate plans and consent conditions. For more information on our facilities, please follow this link.

Council provides weekly refuse and fortnightly kerbside recyclable collection from urban areas paying for this service, in Arapuni, Putāruru, Tīrau and Tokoroa. For more on our recycling service, please follow this link or for the recycling calendar please click here.

Council also provides for litter collection in our CBD areas and parks and reserves.

For transfer station fees follow this link here.

RECYCLING CLEAN UP

Due to the high costs associated with disposing of contaminated recycling, Council’s contractor has been instructed to no longer empty contaminated household recycling crates.

This page contains information on what CAN and CAN’T be recycled in the South Waikato.

The same applies to our recycling drop-off zones.

Crates and wheelie bins with the following contamination issues will not be emptied. They will be stickered and an education flyer left in the mailbox to help residents improve their recycling efforts. Repeated stickering may initiate the Three Strikes and You're Out system

Causes of contamination:

  • Contains NON-RECYCLABLE material. Examples of items that can’t be recycled, include: plastics 3, 4, 6 & 7*, polystyrene, fabric, soft plastic bags, dirty nappies, fastfood bags, (with or without leftovers), broken household items (chairs, buckets etc). Put these items in your rubbish. * only plastics 1, 2 and 5 can be recycled
  • Contains items that were dirty, UNRINSED or had food waste on it. Examples of these are unrinsed milk bottle containers, unwashed dog food cans, pizza boxes with food sticking to the cardboard, fastfood packaging that is greasy and has food scraps. Rinse items or if that is not possible, put them in your rubbish.
  • The crate was too full, OVER-FLOWING.
  • Crate was not placed at KERBSIDE.
  • Crate contains potentially HAZARDOUS material.
  • Contains LIDS/CAPS/TOPS which need to be removed. These items should go in your RED RUBBISH bin.
  • Recycling was not in an OFFICIAL Council crate. Council’s contractor will only empty official Council crates.

Top 5 recycling tips

Here are the top five tips for recycling in the South Waikato. If you get this right, you’re well on your way to being a top recycler!

  • Plastics 1s, 2s and 5s only - clear and coloured. No other plastic can be recycled. If it has numbers 3, 4, 6 or 7 on it, please bin it. If you can’t see a number or there is no number, please bin it.
  • Clean, wash, rinse. Dirty products contaminate recycling.
  • Remove all lids, caps, tops and put in the rubbish. Even if it says plastic 1, 2 or 5. These items are too small to process.
  • Flatten and fold. Un-flattened boxes take up too much space!
  • If in doubt, chuck it out… in the rubbish!

Top 5 recycling mistakes

There are a number of products on the market that people commonly think can be recycled, but they can’t be; so we need to remove these items from our recycling.

  • Plastics 3, 4, 6 & 7 can’t be recycled. Please bin these products.
  • Glass products other than glass bottles, such as windscreen glass, mirror glass, window glass etc are not recyclable. Please discard these safely at your local transfer station.
  • Soft plastics such as potato chip packets, lettuce packaging, nut packets, plastic wrap, chocolate bar wrappers can’t be recycled. Please put these products in the RED RUBBISH bin.
  • Broken plastic items such as buckets, chairs, plates are not suitable for recycling.

Where is the plastic recycling symbol?

The plastic recycling symbol is usually on the bottom of the product. Only 1s, 2s and 5s can be recycled.

  • Commonly used plastic items that ARE recyclable: Milk bottles, soft drink bottles, some plastic meat trays, some household products...
  • Commonly used items that AREN’T recyclable: Yogurt pots, margarine containers, ice cream containers, some plastic meat trays, some condiment containers...

If you can’t see a recycling symbol or there is no number in the symbol, put the item in your rubbish. Sadly, Council has no control over the visibility of these symbols or the size of them!

There are millions of products on the market. We cannot list them all!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is central government doing about recycling?

Ministry for the Environment have a work programme for waste which includes;

  • Standardizing kerbside
  • Developing end of life solutions
  • Phasing out certain single use plastics
  • Encourage behaviour to prevent waste into homes

Why must we remove lids, caps and tops?

These items are too small to be processed and are therefore NOT able to be recycled.

How can I find out more about going plastic free entirely?

Visit the Plastic Free July website here.

Is cling wrap or plastic wrap recyclable?

Soft plastics such as cling wrap, rubbish bags, meat tray wrappers, fruit and vegetable packaging bags can NOT be recycled.

Does this information apply to the recycling drop-off zones?

Yes. Signage has been installed to assist.

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