Soft plastic and takeaway cups still being thrown into recycling bins around Taranaki

SIMON O’CONNOR/STUFF

Taranaki locals are still throwing the wrong things in their recycling bins despite the audits and education in place. (File photo)

Despite a massive push towards cutting Taranaki household waste to zero – with plans to spend millions in the coming decade – some people around the region still aren’t getting recycling quite right.

Over the festive period, recycling bins across Taranaki contained items such as takeaway cups, plastic wrap, polystyrene and dirty containers, despite attempts to educate householders and an auditing system telling them when they’re getting it wrong.

Part of the push sees Beatrice Bjorn, who works for Taranaki waste contractor Envirowaste, auditing hundreds of bins across the region each week, placing tags on them and giving the figures back to the district councils.

The red tags tell people when their bin is badly contaminated and not being picked up, orange is a warning, and no tag means all is well.

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In Stratford, the two-week period over Christmas and New Year saw 61 contaminated bins out of the 353 that were audited.

SIMON O’CONNOR/STUFF

The largest contaminants are takeaway cups, plastic wrap and dirty containers. (File photo)

This included 21 bins with plastic wrap, 10 with takeaway cups, eight single-use plastic bags, five with polystyrene and five with non-recycleable milk and juice containers, a Stratford District Council meeting agenda showed.

Council assets director Victoria Araba said the bin auditing is “beneficial” to council and residents.

Every week a report is sent through to each council detailing bins that were fine or labelled with orange or red tags, and what their problems were.

“We wanted to see contaminations in recycling stop,” Araba said.

“The only way to educate people is to tell them they’re not recycling right. Some people don’t even realise they’re recycling wrong.”

If someone gets three red tags they’re suspended, and Araba said that had happened in Stratford.

In South Taranaki, there were 76 contaminations out of 381 bins audited over the festive period.

This included 19 takeaway cups, 19 soft plastics, seven cases of non-recyclable food wrap, five dirty containers, and three non-recyclable milk and juice containers, South Taranaki District Council environment and sustainability officer Victoria Moyle said in an emailed statement.

New Plymouth was the audited winner over the same period, with 87 contaminations out of about 900 bins audited between December 23 and January 4.

This included bins with multiple types of contamination, including 56 containing rubbish, 22 with clothing, 19 with non-recyclable plastic, 21 with glass, five with green waste, three with electrical items, three with coffee cups, and one with polystyrene,” Kimberley Hope, New Plymouth District Council manager of resource recovery, said in an emailed statement.

Stuff

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