Efforts to recycle in vain

Environmentally conscious Kaiko¯ ura residents say they have been misled by their council, which has been landfilling paper and plastics intended for recycling.

A post on council-run Innovative Waste Kaiko¯ura’s (IWK) Facebook page on Friday sent environmentalists in the South Island district into a spin, informing them most of their recycling was actually rubbish.

‘‘Every week, our kerbside team collects tonnes of ‘recycling’ that is actually rubbish (things that cannot currently be recycled and have to go to our landfill),’’ the post read.

‘‘This costs our community thousands of dollars a year, and gives people the wrong idea about how sustainable and environmentally friendly their practices are.’’

The ‘‘recyclable’’ items that are actually rubbish, according to the post, include all paper and most plastics.

The only plastics being recycled are clear drink bottles and milk bottles.

‘‘For now plastics will still be collected as part of kerbside/be able to be dropped off as recycling. But they are not recyclable and will go to landfill,’’ IWK said, responding to residents’ feedback.

‘‘The post was to let people know what happens to the items once they get to IWK and encourage people to reduce their plastic use where possible.’’

Resident Heath Melville said the confusion was unnecessary and people just needed to be told the truth.

He questioned why there were soft plastic and other harder plastic recycling stations at IWK if it was being sent to landfill.

Melville said he and other residents were under the impression materials with no market were being stockpiled for when one became available.

Recycling guru Ralph Hogan, who last year gave up on recycling in favour of reducing and reusing because of the pitfalls of recycling effectively, said the council was misleading the public.

‘‘For years I have struggled to get detailed information as to what is recycled, what is stockpiled, what is land banked, and what is landfilled,’’ he said.

‘‘As for what we can do as individuals, we can only work with what information we have so please, please, give it to us straight.’’

Council senior operations manager Dave Clibbery said people were not told of the changes to recycling markets because it had been hoped it was a short-term problem.

However, there had not been a reliable market for coloured plastics since 2016 and the materials that had been stockpiled were now deteriorating and being dumped in the landfill.

He maintained the council was correct in telling people they could still deposit all plastics in their recycling, even though they were likely to be stockpiled and/ or landfilled.

‘‘Continuing the previous practice of stockpiling does not seem appropriate, and a recommendation is therefore to be presented to council that the acceptance of paper and type 3 to 7 plastics into council recycling services should end in the near future,’’ Clibbery said.