Tough line for contaminators
Waipa¯ District Council has suspended recycling services to 13 homes after people continued to put ‘‘contaminated’’ items into their wheelie bins.
The council’s operations team leader Jennifer Braithwaite said the problem has reached crisis point, almost half of the district’s recycling was heading to landfill because people were placing incorrect items in their recycling bins.
Costs were about $33,000 per month to deal with the problem and the council was asking people to dob-in others they see putting in contaminated waste into their bins.
‘‘We’re seeing everything from bags full of rubbish to used medical products, needles, dog poo, dirty nappies and just last week dead fish coming through the sorting line,’’ Braithwaite said.
‘‘Other contamination such as car motor oil and other liquids have forced the closure of the production line [at the Te Awamutu sorting centre] for major clean-ups.’’
These types of items could contaminate an entire load of recyclable materials and force contractors to send otherwise good recycling to landfill, she said.
Costs to deal with contaminated recycling included transporting the material to landfill, disposing of it and the loss of revenue from otherwise good product which could have been sold on the recycling market.
Braithwaite said the council’s recycling contractor undertook regular bin inspections across the district and since lockdown, 13 households had their service suspended due to ongoing contamination in their wheelie bins.
‘‘A key way to tackle this issue is to
inspect bins before they are collected to ensure only good, clean recycling has been put inside the wheelie bin.
‘‘Contaminated bins are stickered in the first instance and not collected.
‘‘On the next collection, our drivers will check them again and if contamination is found, the property owners will be notified and their bin won’t be emptied.’’
After a third offence, the property owners received a letter from the council and service could be suspended.
Households with ‘‘extreme contamination’’ could face having their service removed permanently, Braithwate said.
‘‘There are some fantastic recyclers in our communities who are doing a great job but there are others who knowingly and blatantly put stuff like rubbish, dirty nappies and car motor oil in their recycling bins.
‘‘If you do see someone, be that a neighbour or anyone putting rubbish or contamination into their wheelie bin, please report it to the council and help us tackle this issue.’’
Earlier, the council announced it would reduce its glass collections from 13 to 12 per year, in 2021.
Data showed many households only needed to place their glass bin out every second or third collection.
Cutting back the number of collections would save about $25,000 a year but that money was likely to be swallowed up by the mounting cost of contamination at the sorting centre.
There were no changes to the mixed recycling collection which occurred every two weeks, the same as in previous years.
But the council encouraged people to check their 2021 recycling calendars or the recycling day finder on its website to ensure they were putting their bins out on the correct day.