District may bring in bin police to stop rotten recyclers
Human faeces, containers of used oil, car batteries, and gas bottles are just some of what is being dumped in people’s recycling bins in the Waipā district.
The local authority is now urging people to dispose of their rubbish properly, rather than put it in their recycling bins.
Work stopped every time a contaminant entered the recycling centre in Te Awamutu. The facility had to be deep cleaned, and the whole load of recycling had to be dumped.
It was a health-and-safety risk, wasted money, and disrupted the recycling process, operations team leader of transportation Jennifer Braithwaite said.
‘‘It’s a big problem.’’
The faeces contaminated machinery, was smeared over the conveyor belt and other recycling, and made staff physically sick, Braithwaite said.
When recycling was picked up, it was tipped loose into the back of the truck, and compacted to squeeze in as much as possible. Then it was tipped into a bin before ending up on the conveyor belt, where it was hand sorted.
‘‘In doing that a lot of the material gets all mixed up and breaks open,’’ she said.
A contaminant in the mix meant the whole load of recycling had to be dumped, and the contractor had to pay for its disposal at the landfill.
Hours of production was wasted while the facility was deep cleaned, and otherwise-good recycling was not able to be sold.
Braithwaite said if the centre kept getting contaminated, the council would be forced to put up its prices, at a cost to ratepayers.
‘‘Please put the correct items in the recycling bin. Don’t put all the wrong things in there. Don’t use it as a rubbish bin,’’ she said.
Previously, the council hired two full-time bin inspectors for three months to find and prevent contaminants from heading to the recycling centre.
It was looking at restarting this to try to educate people and reduce the number of people dumping contaminants in their recycling.
‘‘We are going to make an effort to restart the bin audits now that there are less [Covid-19] restrictions.’’
The inspectors would look in people’s recycling bins before the truck arrived to take their recycling away. If they saw something that did not belong, they would put a sticker on the bin to inform its owner about the contaminated item.
‘‘We want to try and nip it in the bud,’’ Braithwaite said. ‘‘It’s more cost-effective than dealing with contamination.’’
The only things that should be recycled were plastics (with the numbers 1, 2, and 5), tins, cans, paper, cardboard, and glass.
If people were unsure what they could put into the recycling bins, they could call the council for advice.
People could also check the council’s recycling page on its website.
‘‘We want to try and nip it in the bud. It’s more cost-effective than dealing with contamination.’’ Jennifer Braithwaite
Waipā District Council’s operations team leader of transport