Rubbish & Recycling

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

• Only plastics 1s, 2s and 5s only - clear and coloured.
• Clean, wash, rinse. Dirty products contaminate recycling.
• Remove all plastic lids, caps, tops and put in the rubbish. Even if it says plastic 1, 2 or 5. These items are too small to process.
• Lids on tin cans can stay if they're still attached or inserted into the can. Be sure to squeeze the can opening so that it closes, and the lid can't fall out.
• Flatten and fold. Un-flattened boxes take up too much space!
• Cardboard, including pizza boxes, must be clean and free of food, tape or any waxy residue.
• If in doubt, chuck it out… in the rubbish!

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.
• All soft plastics such as bread bags, bubble wrap, clingwrap, chip packets, lolly wrappers, rubbish bags - of any sort including (bamboo bags, reusable bags, compostable bags) 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.

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

• All containers must be washed, rinsed and clean.
• If you can’t see a recycling symbol or there is no number in the symbol, put the item in your rubbish. 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.

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.

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.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.

The following applies to kerbside recycling collection and the transfer station.

• Household recycling items only, no commercial items.
• Only plastics 1, 2 & 5, rinsed cans and plastic bottles can go into the recycling bin.
• Plastic meat trays must be rinsed.
• UHT (long life milk and juice boxes) must go into the red-lid rubbish bin as these cannot be recycled.
• Flattened cardboard household only (not commercial) can go into the cardboard bins.
• No magazines or books with a shiny, glossy plastic coating.
• Glass bottles/jars can be placed into the glass green/maroon crates please rinse these first. No medical jars, light bulbs, drinking glasses and cups, window glass, broken glass, ceramics, fiberglass and mirrors.
• No lithium batteries as these are a cause of many fires. Items, such as old phones and phone chargers, containing lithium batteries can be dropped off free of charge at the Battery boxes around the District.

Search directory

We've provided a comprehensive search directory so you can find what to do with your waste items.