Recycling contamination costs Waipa District Council $50k each month

Five per cent of Waipā residents are costing ratepayers about $50,000 a month by ignoring recycling rules.

Waipa District Council waste minimisation adviser Shelley Wilson said people were adding contamination items to their recycling which, if not caught by the auditors, would send the whole truckload to landfill.

“Some obvious non-recyclable items have been found by our auditors, like medical waste, animal carcasses, and food scraps.

“It is not just redirecting contaminated recycling to landfill that costs ratepayers. Someone’s recycling included pieces of machinery metal. As they came across the sorting conveyor belt, they jammed into the chain drive and shut down the whole facility for four hours.”

Contamination is also a huge health and safety risk, as recycling is sorted by hand.

“Staff were even sprayed by a very nasty unidentified substance which shot out of the recycling bale while it was being compacted,” Wilson said.

“While these are some extreme examples, most residents are only making a few mistakes that have a simple fix, like removing lids from bottles and rinsing containers.”

Central government introduced standardised recycling across the country in February, and though the changes were minimal for Waipā, behavioural change was not happening fast enough.

For some, the only way to change their behaviour was to suspend their service.

“Our contractors have reported some of the lengths people go to avoid the auditors or the suspension of their collection, if they just put that effort into recycling right, we wouldn’t have such a problem.”

The only recycling items collected at the kerbside were those with the recycling symbol and numbers 1, 2 or 5, tins, cans, paper, and cardboard.

Visit wastelesswaipa.co.nz to find out more about recycling in Waipā.