Glass collections are coming back
The clank of kerbside glass collections will resume in Palmerston North neighbourhoods onmonday.
The service was temporarily canned at the end of March, when the Omicron wave compounded driver shortages, and the city council gave priority to retaining rubbish and recycling collections.
The return of kerbside collections was announced by chief infrastructure officer Sarah Sinclair at yesterday’s council meeting.
Mayor Grant Smith said it was great to see things returning to business as usual after the Covid-19 outbreak.
However, acting resource recovery manager Bryce Hosking said collectors would not be able to clear people’s entire backlog of stored glass all at once, and asked for residents’ patience.
He said the glass recycling trucks usually collected about 1000 crates of glass each collection day. They might not be able to pick up all the glass people wanted to put out during the first collection cycle.
People were asked to put out only as much as they could comfortably fit in their crate, he said. ‘‘It’s important that crates aren’t overfull, because if glass falls out on the kerbside or driveway, this may cause a safety issue for residents and council staff.’’
A second crate of glass could be placed at the kerbside, but it had to be a sturdy container with handles that was no bigger than the council-issued crate.
As the extra containers will be emptied and left at the kerb, people are asked not to use cardboard cartons, as this could create litter.
Another solution is for people to ask if they could put their glass in a neighbour’s crate if there is room.
People who have built up a stockpile of empty glass bottles and jars are encouraged to keep taking them to one of the city’s recycling drop-off centres.
Glass recycling is collected on the alternate week to recycling wheelie bins.
Residents can find their rubbish and recycling days at pncc.govt.nz/rubbishandrecycling.